tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-368513982024-03-12T17:30:03.689-06:00Pete's Picks"Read anything good lately?" Why, yes I have! A compendium of good reads, with occasional good listens and views, at the ST. ALBERT PUBLIC LIBRARY.Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.comBlogger168125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-87486946998835790912012-11-25T12:18:00.000-07:002012-11-27T16:52:28.615-07:00100 Grey Cups<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bC50iElB1Vk/ULJdtixIn3I/AAAAAAAABZ0/tS7akPHnadA/s1600/greycup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bC50iElB1Vk/ULJdtixIn3I/AAAAAAAABZ0/tS7akPHnadA/s200/greycup.jpg" width="163" /></a></div>
For Edmonton Eskimos fans the 100th Grey Cup is a bit of a dilemma. Who to cheer for? The pitiable Toronto Argonauts or the detestable Calgary Stampeders? Most folks I have talked to will cheer on former Eskimo quarterback (and St. Albert resident) Ricky Ray, and thus the Argos. A clear case of the lesser of two evils.<br />
But as Canadians of a certain age understand, Grey Cup is not really about the game. As Stephen Brunt's new book <a href="http://bit.ly/Sjqgmb" target="_blank"><i><b>100 Grey Cups: This Is Our Game </b></i></a>shows, the grey Cup is a celebration of Canada, of nostalgia, of community and of course, beer.<br />
I noticed Calgary's <i>Avenue Magazine</i> posted a list of <a href="http://bit.ly/V6iwXw" target="_blank"><b>10 Great Grey Cup Beers</b></a> but was puzzled by their selection. Only four of the ten are Canadian, none are from Calgary, and most are big, intense beers meant for sipping by a fire, not watching football. Here's my own version of 10 Great Grey Cup Beers, from west to east.<br />
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<b>Halifax</b>: <a href="http://bit.ly/TovA7B" target="_blank"><b>Propeller ESB</b></a> (Extra Special Bitter), from Propeller Brewing. It is a shame Halifax does not have a CFL team - they should. There are many football fans in the Maritimes, and a pseudo-team has floated about for ages (the Atlantic Schooners). Halifax is a great beer town as well, with two excellent craft breweries, <b>Garrison</b> and Propeller. I quite like Propeller's Anglo-focussed beers, including the delicious ESB.<b> </b><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LpL1gHHIa-w/ULVR8aP6eoI/AAAAAAAABb0/oPaOsJqw3Uc/s1600/st-ambroise-pale-ale-bottle-glass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LpL1gHHIa-w/ULVR8aP6eoI/AAAAAAAABb0/oPaOsJqw3Uc/s200/st-ambroise-pale-ale-bottle-glass.jpg" width="145" /></a><b>Montreal</b>: The recovery of the Montreal Alouettes is one of the best stories of the CFL in the last few years. And the Montreal craft beer scene is an even better story. <b>Dieu du Ciel </b>continues to innovate while pioneer <b>McAuslan</b> continues to impress. McAuslan's delicious <a href="http://bit.ly/QEvXN6" target="_blank"><b>St-Ambroise Pale Ale</b></a> remains a personal fave.<br />
<b>Ottawa</b>: The CFL is coming back to Ottawa in 2014, and that's a good thing. Finally Winnipeg can move back to the Western conference. So, for a team that doesn't exist yet, a beer we can't get yet in Alberta, <a href="http://bit.ly/Sju7j1" target="_blank"><b>Beau's Lug Tread Lagered Ale</b></a> from Beau's All Natural Brewing in Vankleek Hill, near Ottawa. I look forward to the day we can get Beau's beers in Alberta.<br />
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<b>Toronto</b>: It was very nice of Edmonton to give Toronto our star quarterback so that the Argonauts could make it to the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto. Don't say we don't do anything nice for Toronto. There are many great beers to choose from in Toronto and area, but perhaps I should go for a beer brewed in the shadow of SkyDome, where the Grey Cup is being played (yes, SkyDome - I'm old school). Steam Whistle is located a Ricky Ray long bomb away from the field. Their<b> <a href="http://bit.ly/TkkHS3" target="_blank">Steam Whistle Pilsner</a></b><a href="http://bit.ly/TkkHS3" target="_blank"> </a>is an excellent football beer, when you may need to have more than one!<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wAk3yyl_UCU/ULJyhejAieI/AAAAAAAABbE/uNlKvFuDY24/s1600/scrapper.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wAk3yyl_UCU/ULJyhejAieI/AAAAAAAABbE/uNlKvFuDY24/s200/scrapper.png" width="58" /></a><b>Hamilton</b>: With a new stadium coming soon, the Ti-Cats are on the way back, one presumes. As to Hamilton craft beer, well that's a mystery to me. But the great band the Arkells are from The Hammer, and <b>Wellington Brewery</b> just northwest in Guelph has the excellent <a href="http://bit.ly/TXtaJd" target="_blank"><b>Wellington Arkell Best Bitter</b></a>... Okay, a stretch. <br />
<b>Winnipeg</b>: Poor old Blue Bombers. That's all that needs to be said. Let's focus on the great beer brewed by Winnipeg's <b>Half Pints Brewing</b>, shall we? Their <a href="http://bit.ly/Tkmy9z" target="_blank"><b>Little Scrapper IPA</b></a> seems appropriate for football watching.<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8ZJZybVFOdU/ULJwqM1qb5I/AAAAAAAABa0/dZ51FLMbws4/s1600/saaz.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8ZJZybVFOdU/ULJwqM1qb5I/AAAAAAAABa0/dZ51FLMbws4/s200/saaz.png" width="56" /></a><b>Calgary</b>: I love you Calgary but you know we up north can't cheer for your teams right? Good. We're happy to drink your beer however. Indications are that<b> Big Rock</b> has awoken from its multi-year slumber and is putting some effort into making beer again. Some promise has come from recent seasonals and one-offs, including their good new Czech pilsener, <a href="http://bit.ly/UmkYXI" target="_blank"><b>Saaz Republic Pils</b></a>. Word has it that Big rock is going to keep Saaz on as a year-round beer. If true this means a delicious new beer for the Edmonton Folk festival beer tent. Still, a word of advice: Don`t fear the hops, Big Rock - we love'em!<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F6tm0gch-vg/ULJv8q1fDgI/AAAAAAAABak/MutXitfsMaw/s1600/full+moon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F6tm0gch-vg/ULJv8q1fDgI/AAAAAAAABak/MutXitfsMaw/s200/full+moon.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<b>Edmonton</b>: It's a great shame that the home of the Eskimos, Commonwealth Stadium, does not serve a local beer. Molson does not brew in Alberta! Commonwealth, a city-owned facility, should take a tip from some US stadia and serve local beer. Support your local brewers, like Edmonton's own<b> Alley Kat Brewing</b>. For the big game you can't go wrong with Alley Kat's world-beating <a href="http://bit.ly/S5ho27" target="_blank"><b>Full Moon Pale Ale</b></a>.<br />
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<b>Vancouver</b>: Van has a lot of things going for it - do they really need winning sports teams? No, I think not. One thing lotuslanders have going is access to a lot of great beer from around Cascadia. Driftwood, Phillips , Steamworks - so much good BC beer. Venerable Granville Island Brewing has suffered growing pains, with their beers seeming a bit dated now. But Brockton IPA is a decent brew and Granville has been doing some interesting seasonals. Interesting is how I would refer to their <a href="http://bit.ly/TXvKz2" target="_blank">Lions Winter Ale </a>seasonal. The strong vanilla taste is not for me, but I know several people who LOVE this beer.<br />
Enjoy the beer, Canada, and the game as well.<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pa1yL6m9xas/ULJ-SgIrRsI/AAAAAAAABbc/gh0Wi1WGRNE/s1600/16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pa1yL6m9xas/ULJ-SgIrRsI/AAAAAAAABbc/gh0Wi1WGRNE/s200/16.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
Edit: How embarrassing, I forgot Saskatchewan. Or did I? ;) Where do the Roughriders play again? <b>Regina</b>: Yes, there's <b><a href="http://bit.ly/10CxcOm" target="_blank">Pil</a></b>. Let's move on, shall we? As the Roughriders represent all Saskatchewan I'll head north for one of indie <b>Great Western Brewing</b>'s<b> </b>brews. Their <b><a href="http://bit.ly/U5UE1C" target="_blank">Original 16</a> </b>is a very quaffable "Canadian pale ale" that would match well with the watermelon Riders fans appear to enjoy while watching football. <br />
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<br />Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-14022379195421872722012-09-07T15:24:00.001-06:002012-09-07T15:25:21.566-06:00Gone Girl<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e9w0tJt2g_U/UEph6ckSWJI/AAAAAAAABZg/G6ZdNW0QKOA/s1600/gone+girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e9w0tJt2g_U/UEph6ckSWJI/AAAAAAAABZg/G6ZdNW0QKOA/s200/gone+girl.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
For the first time in <b><i>ages</i></b> the Library has a new number 1 'most popular book', finally knocking <a href="http://bit.ly/QnAzAD" target="_blank"><i><b>Fifty Shades of Grey</b></i></a> of its perch: <a href="http://bit.ly/QnAzAD" target="_blank"><i><b>Gone Girl </b></i></a>by <b>Gillian Flynn</b>. This gripping thriller depicts a crumbling marriage from both the husband and wife's point of view. On the morning of their fifth anniversary Amy, the wife, disappears, casting suspicion
on her husband, Nick. This book built in popularity all summer long, and it looks like it is continuing to build. The news that the film rights had been purchased by Reese Witherspoon added to the buzz. Check out Flynn's previous two novels, <a href="http://bit.ly/OWQMOV" target="_blank"><i><b>Sharp Objects</b></i></a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/OWQMOV" target="_blank"><i><b>Dark Places</b></i></a> as well.<br />
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The top ten most-requested books (aka "bestsellers") at the Library this week:<br />
<ol>
<li><i><b>Gone Girl</b></i> by <b>Gillian Flynn</b> </li>
<li><i><b>Fifty Shades Darker</b></i> by <b>E.L. James</b></li>
<li><i><b>Where We Belong</b></i> by <b>Emily Giffin</b></li>
<li><i><b>Bones Are Forever</b></i> by <b>Kathy Reichs</b></li>
<li><i><b>Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry</b></i> by <b>Rachel Joyce</b></li>
<li><i><b>Beautiful Mystery</b></i> by <b>Louise Penny</b></li>
<li><i><b>Fifty Shades Freed</b></i> by<b> E. L. James</b></li>
<li><i><b>Trust Your Eyes</b></i> by <b>Linwood Barclay</b></li>
<li><i><b>Sweet Tooth</b> </i>by <b>Ian MacEwan</b></li>
<li><i><b>Watching the Dark</b></i> by <b>Peter Robinson</b></li>
</ol>
Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-28195544339002182812012-05-21T12:35:00.000-06:002012-05-21T12:36:04.813-06:00For All the Tea in China<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><span style="color: #073763;">Happy</span> Victoria <span style="color: #073763;">Day!</span></span></b></span></h5>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">I love our quixotic, very Canadian holiday. Did you know Canada is the only country in the world to celebrate <a href="http://bit.ly/KzMflP" target="_blank">Victoria Day</a>? Strange but true.</span></span></h5>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Below two Victorianish book picks for the St. Albert Gazette <a href="http://bit.ly/Jxyzbz" target="_blank"><i>Good reading!</i></a> column.</span></span></h5>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">For All the Tea in China </i>by <b>Sarah Rose</b></span></h5>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">A ripping tale of Victorian adventure, all the more incredible because it’s true. In 1848, the British East India Company sent Scottish botanist Robert Fortune deep inside China to steal the secrets to tea horticulture. A thrilling account of Fortune’s remarkable journeys into China – a daring act of corporate espionage.</span></h5>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><b><i>The American Heiress</i> </b>by<b> Daisy Goodwin</b></span></h5>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">An appealing novel of changing times in the late Victorian era, sure to appeal to fans of Downton Abbey. In 1893, Cora Cash, America's richest heiress, heads to Europe with her mother to marry into aristocracy. Soon enough, engaged to the Duke of Wareham, Cora discovers that money can’t buy everything.</span></h5>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">The painting of Victoria above was Victoria's secret: a special painting by Franz Winterhalter of Vic at age 24 done for her husband Albert. known as the "secret picture", Albert kept the painting in his private chambers and it only became known to the public in 2002.</span></h5>
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</div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-40486989487610921492012-05-13T14:48:00.002-06:002012-05-18T14:50:22.679-06:00Edmonton Bestsellers - May 13, 2012Local Bestsellers, as compiled by Greenwoods Books and published in the <a href="http://bit.ly/6UfOPU"><i>Edmonton Journal </i></a>on May 13, 2012. * = Canadian author ** = Alberta author *** = Edmonton author.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: red;">
<b><a href="http://bit.ly/ISyA42">Fiction</a></b></div>
<ol>
<li><b><i>419</i></b> - Will Ferguson **</li>
<li><i><b>Coppermine</b></i> - Keith Ross Leckie *</li>
<li><i><b>The Prague Cemetery</b></i> - Umberto Eco</li>
<li><i><b>The Hunger Games</b></i> - Suzanne Collins</li>
<li><i><b>Half-Blood Blues</b></i> - Esi Edugyan **</li>
<li><i><b>Why Men Lie</b></i> - Linden MacIntyre *</li>
<li><i><b>The Art of Fielding</b></i> - Chad Harbach</li>
<li><i><b>The Sisters Brothers</b></i> - Patrick deWitt *</li>
<li><i><b>50 Shades of Grey</b></i> - E.L. James</li>
<li><i><b>Killing Winter</b></i> - Wayne Arthurson ***</li>
</ol>
<a href="http://bit.ly/KhJ4xy"><span style="color: red;"><b>Non-Fiction</b><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></a><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><b><i>The Cure for Everything</i></b> - Timothy Caulfield ***</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><b><i>Foodshed</i></b> - dee Hobsbawn-Smith **</span></span></li>
<li><i><b>Baba's Kitchen Remedies</b></i> - Michael Mucz ***</li>
<li><i><b>Food & the City</b></i> - Jennifer Cockrall-King ***</li>
<li><i><b>What We Talk About When We Talk About the War</b></i> - Noah Richler *</li>
<li><i><b>F in Exams </b></i>- Richard Benson</li>
<li><b><i>The Healing Code</i></b> - Alexander Loyd</li>
<li><i><b>Straphanger</b></i> - Tara Grescoe *</li>
<li><i><b>The Table Comes First </b></i>- Adam Gopnik * </li>
<li><b><i>Imagine</i></b> - Jonah Lehrer</li>
</ol>
Both #1 writers have been the St. Albert Public Library's guests, Will Ferguson for STARfest in October 2011, Timothy Caulfield just a few days ago for a talk. Edmontonian Wayne Arthurson was also the Library's guest in 2011, Michael Mucz just yesterday.Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-1071761985879788582011-10-04T12:25:00.028-06:002011-10-05T12:57:26.387-06:00Scotiabank Alt-Giller Shortlist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dFDawi01nfM/ToyofWJQQ2I/AAAAAAAABY8/SbtEbZ3WWjg/s1600/Marina+and+Lynn+Antagonist+Sept+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dFDawi01nfM/ToyofWJQQ2I/AAAAAAAABY8/SbtEbZ3WWjg/s200/Marina+and+Lynn+Antagonist+Sept+11.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Today the <a href="http://bit.ly/pIyOE2"><b>Scotiabank Giller Prize</b></a> jury of novelists Howard Norman, Andrew O’Hagan and Annabel Lyon announced the results of their culling of the Giller longlist of 17 down to a shortlist of 6. Congratulations to all the authors who have made it to the official 2011 Scotiabank Giller <a href="http://bit.ly/pIyOE2">shortlist</a>:<br />
<div align="left"></div><table><tbody>
<tr><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>David Bezmozgis</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><b><i>The Free World</i></b></td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Lynn Coady</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><b><i>The Antagonist</i></b></td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Patrick deWitt</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><b><i>The Sisters Brothers</i></b></td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Esi Edugyan</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><b><i>Half-Blood Blues</i></b></td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Michael Ondaatje</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><b><i>Cat's Table </i></b></td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Zsuzsi Gartner</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><b><i>Better Living Through Plastic Explosives</i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left">Here at <a href="http://www.sapl.ab.ca/"><b>St. Albert Public Library</b></a> our patrons created a local version of the shortlist by placing holds on the longlist titles - an Alt-Giller shortlist. Our list would drop Bezmozgis, Edugyan and Gartner in favour of Endicott, Vanderhaeghe and Johnston:</div><table><tbody>
<tr valign="top"><td>1</td><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Michael Ondaatje</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><i><b>Cat's Table</b></i></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>2</td><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Marina Endicott</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><i><b>The Little Shadows</b></i></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>3</td><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Guy Vanderhaeghe</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><i><b>A Good Man</b></i></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>4</td><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Wayne Johnston</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><i><b>A World Elsewhere</b></i></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>5</td><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Patrick deWitt</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><i><b>The Sisters Brothers</b></i></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>6</td><td style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Lynn Coady</b></td><td style="color: #274e13;"><i><b>The Antagonist</b></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Locally, Michael Ondaatje's <i>Cat's Table</i> is by far the most popular, but Marina Endicott's <i>The Little Shadows</i> and Guy Vanderhaeghe's <i>A Good Man</i> aren't far behind. We are very big Marina Endicott fans hereabouts, so we were disappointed not to see <i>The Little Shadows</i> on the shortlist. But we shout huzzah for another local hero, Lynn Coady, making it to the shortlist with <i>The Antagonist</i>. Look for an appearance by both Marina and Lynn at the Library, probably early in the new year. [Photo above is Marina (L) and Lynn (R) at the launch of <i>The Antagonist</i> in Edmonton in September].Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-13372148651818092112011-08-26T11:23:00.001-06:002011-08-26T11:23:54.334-06:00Summer Gone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tnyag97R_Cc/TlfPHqhPi7I/AAAAAAAABYw/lhK62httGBc/s1600/summer+gone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tnyag97R_Cc/TlfPHqhPi7I/AAAAAAAABYw/lhK62httGBc/s200/summer+gone.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">They go too quickly, Alberta summers. Driving north from Red Deer yesterday I couldn't help but notice the tinge of yellow in some of the trees along the highway. Sigh. The end of summer always reminds of David Macfarlane's lovely novel <i>Summer Gone</i><b><i> - </i></b>a book that didn't get near enough buzz when it came out in 1999. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Below a few end-of-summer reads:<b><i><br />
</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://stalbert.bibliocommons.com/item/show/260739031_summer_gone"><b><i>Summer Gone</i></b></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span>by <b>David Macfarlane</b> (1999)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">A beautifully-written, elegiac novel about fathers and sons, fleeting Canadian summers, canoeing, Muskoka cottages, secrets and regret.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://stalbert.bibliocommons.com/search?t=smart&search_category=keyword&q=sag+harbor+colson&commit=Search">Sag Harbor</a> </span></span></i><span lang="EN-CA">by <b>Colson Whitehead</b> (2009)<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA">Summer brings out memories of the endless sun-drenched summers of youth. Brooklyn writer Whitehead remembers the summer of 1985 (New Coke and <i>The Cosby Show</i>) with this autobiographical coming-of-age novel set in Long Island’s Sag Harbor starring 15-year-old Benji Cooper.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://stalbert.bibliocommons.com/item/show/425460031_the_summer_book"><b><i>The Summer Book</i></b></a> by <b>Tove Jansson</b> (1972)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Swedish writer Tove Jansson distills the essence of summer into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia's grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-69367130177940681912011-06-21T12:03:00.003-06:002011-06-21T12:27:23.472-06:00A Fair Country<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9781553655060/MC.GIF&client=stalp&type=xw12&oclc=&upc=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9781553655060/MC.GIF&client=stalp&type=xw12&oclc=&upc=" width="129" /></a></div>Some recent Native/Metis Canadian books that were picked for the St. Albert Gazette Good Reading column in honour of National Aboriginal Day.<br />
<br />
<i><b><a href="http://bit.ly/lTjWDf">One Story, One Song</a> </b></i>by <a href="http://bit.ly/lTjWDf"><b>Richard Wagamese</b></a><br />
For National Aboriginal Day, a new collection of warm, wise and inspiring true stories in this a follow-up to Wagamese’s bestselling memoir, <i><b>One Native Life</b></i>. This time Wagamese invites us with him on his travels as he tells stories that show the four principles of native Ojibway tradition: humility, trust, introspection and wisdom.<br />
<br />
<i><b><a href="http://bit.ly/lTjWDf">Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont</a> </b></i>by <a href="http://bit.ly/lTjWDf"><b>Joseph Boyden</b></a><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6oY2XC7uDoo/TgDbdqIHbNI/AAAAAAAABYk/t2MhiITp6R4/s1600/riel_dumont_cov_1037668cl-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6oY2XC7uDoo/TgDbdqIHbNI/AAAAAAAABYk/t2MhiITp6R4/s200/riel_dumont_cov_1037668cl-3.jpg" width="131" /></a>You could meet Louis Riel in person - as portrayed by St. Albert actor Matt Chaney - at the Rendezvous 2011 "Meet the Street" event on June 12th. Local actors lead by Paul Punyi and Maureen Rooney took on the personas of local historical characters (plus people like Riel important to local history) in celebration of St. Albert's 150th anniversary. In this fascinating dual biography novelist Joseph Boyden (<a href="http://bit.ly/lTjWDf"><i><b>Three Day Road</b></i></a>) takes on Riel and his fellow <span lang="EN-CA">Métis leader Gabriel Dumont.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/lTjWDf"><i><b>Motorcycles and Sweetgrass</b></i></a> by <a href="http://bit.ly/lTjWDf"><b>Drew Hayden Taylor</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9780307398055/MC.GIF&client=stalp&type=xw12&oclc=&upc=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9780307398055/MC.GIF&client=stalp&type=xw12&oclc=&upc=" width="128" /></a>The noted Native Canadian writer has written and edited a number of books, but here it puts it all together in his first novel for adults. This engaging, funny story is set in the sleepy Anishnawbe (Ojibwa) community of Otter Laek, Ontario, where Chief Maggie Second is trying to juggle her busy life. Then one day a handsome stranger pulls up on a 1953 Indian Chief motorcycle and life is turned upside down.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/lTjWDf"><i><b>A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada</b></i></a> by <a href="http://bit.ly/lTjWDf"><b>John Ralston Saul</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9780670068043/MC.GIF&client=stalp&type=xw12&oclc=&upc=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9780670068043/MC.GIF&client=stalp&type=xw12&oclc=&upc=" width="134" /></a>From one of Canada’s great thinkers, a brilliant and persuasively argued book that proposes that Canada is a Métis nation, shaped by aboriginal ideas of egalitarianism, a balance between individuals and groups, and a reflex for negotiation over violence.Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-4127012105112183422011-02-07T14:53:00.000-07:002011-02-07T14:53:19.910-07:00The Yacoubian Building<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/TUiUwtig-SI/AAAAAAAABYI/-QTERkO1noc/s1600/Yacoubian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/TUiUwtig-SI/AAAAAAAABYI/-QTERkO1noc/s200/Yacoubian.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>"Egypt? What? Really?" I like to think I'm reasonably well-informed but the protests in Egypt definitely surprised me. If only I'd read the novel <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://stalbert.bibliocommons.com/item/show/370603031_the_yacoubian_building"><b style="color: #274e13;"><i>The Yacoubian Building</i></b></a> by Cairo dentist, activist, journalist, and - oh yes - novelist, <b style="color: red;">Alaa Al Aswany</b>. It is a perfect example of a work of fiction being able to give context to fast-moving current events.<br />
The <i>New York Review of Books</i> said the novel (2002 Arabic, 2004 English translation) is "an amazing glimpse of modern Egyptian society and culture". The novel focuses on the lives of the residents of the decaying Yacoubian apartment in downtown Cairo, during the Gulf War of 1990. Each character is a thread in the colourful carpet that is modern Egypt, "where political corruption, ill-gotten wealth, and religious hypocrisy are natural allies, where the arrogance and defensiveness of the powerful find expression in the exploitation of the weak, where youthful idealism can turn quickly to extremism..." (from the book's cover).<br />
Al Aswanny is a modern-day version of Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian writer <b style="color: red;">Naguib Mahfouz</b>. Both are social realists, using fiction to point out the problems of Egyptian society. Both have a strong dislike of Islamic fundamentalism and its Egyptian home in the Muslim Brotherhood. In books like his classic <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://stalbert.bibliocommons.com/search?t=smart&q=cairo+trilogy&commit=Search"><i><b>Cairo Trilogy</b></i></a> (<i><b>Palace Walk</b></i>, <i><b>Palace of Desire</b></i>, <i><b>Sugar Street</b></i>) Mahfouz was writing about the malaise of Egypt under colonialism from the 20s to the 50s. Al Aswany writes of the malaise of Egpyt under born-in-Egypt oppression.<br />
Al Aswany's latest novel, <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://stalbert.bibliocommons.com/item/show/424765031_chicago"><i><b>Chicago</b></i></a> (2007 in English) is about the life of young Egyptians living in Chicago, with Egyptian and American lives colliding on a college campus, post-9/11.<br />
A bit of a media star, here's Aswany talking to Charlie on the Charlie Rose show in 2008: <br />
<br />
<embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?showShareButtons=true&docId=-112772276337218950%3A2890000%3A470000&hl=en" style="height: 326px; width: 400px;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><br />
The <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/02/an-egypt-fiction-reading-list.html"><b><i>New Yorker</i></b></a> suggests <i>The Yacoubian Building</i> and some more fiction (plus the memoir <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://stalbert.bibliocommons.com/search?t=smart&search_category=keyword&q=persepolis&commit=Search"><i><b>Persepolis</b></i></a> to help understand the Egyptian crisis.Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-69596926180644597062010-07-15T09:27:00.006-06:002010-07-15T09:41:31.413-06:00Goat Song<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/TD5E4Z8WK4I/AAAAAAAABW4/i6L2kVjg4To/s1600/Ignatieff_cheese_763841artw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/TD5E4Z8WK4I/AAAAAAAABW4/i6L2kVjg4To/s400/Ignatieff_cheese_763841artw.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>When I saw the photo above of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff holding a pack of St. Albert cheddar, I wondered where this "St. Albert" fromagerie could be? Alas, a little googling revealed that the cheeserie in question is in another St. Albert, in Ontario, not far from Ottawa. Le fromage, c'est dommage (our Alberta St. Albert would be perfect for an artisan goat cheese operation!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">Iggy seems quite pleased with his cheese. I don't blame him - cheese is a true delight. For me, one of the highlights of visiting BC's Salt Spring Island in the summer is a trip to <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.saltspringcheese.com/">Salt Spring Island Cheese</a>, not far from the ferry dock at Fulford Harbour. This is a delightful place, with a gorgeous view over the Pacific. It was founded and is owned by David and Nancy Wood, who were refugees from the hectic urban life of Toronto. In 1990 Wood sold his hip Toronto gourmet grocery to "get a life" on Salt Spring. Perhaps the life of a goat cheese maker sounded bucolic, but Wood soon realized the hard work and headaches involved.</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">Two recent memoirs talk about the dream of packing in the city life for a life of artisan cheese making:</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><ul><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/TD8ok2vGayI/AAAAAAAABXI/RNVOMEKJm2E/s1600/goat+trip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/TD8ok2vGayI/AAAAAAAABXI/RNVOMEKJm2E/s200/goat+trip.jpg" width="133" /></a>
<li><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=Q279N7K657687.2278&profile=sapl-ext&uri=full%3D3100001%7E%21440350%7E%210&ri=5&term=Kessler%2C+Brad.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=5&view=PUBLISHERS_WEEKLY_REVIEW&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&source=%7E%21stalbert&enhancedcontentdata=true%0A%09%09">Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding and the Art of Making Cheese</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">(2009)</span></span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">by <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Brad Kessler</span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> </span></span></span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">- Novelist Kessler (<i><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=RTG9206684671.2935&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21391269%7E%211&ri=8&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Kessler,+Brad.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=8">Birds in Fall</a></i>, <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=RTG9206684671.2935&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21279392%7E%212&ri=10&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Kessler,+Brad.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=10"><i>Lick Creek</i></a>) turns his skilled hand to the memoir, describing his escape from the urban grind of New York City to a 75 acre Vermont farm which he and his wife turned into a goat farm. He details the many difficulties of farming but is clear that the cheese makes it all worth it!</span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=Q279N7K657687.2278&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21465728%7E%217&ri=1&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=cheese&index=.SW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1">The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">(2007) by <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Margaret Hathaway <span style="color: black;">- </span></span></b></span></span></i></b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">Like Kessler, Hathaway and her husband were busy, busy, busy New Yorkers who yearned for an escape to the pastoral. Fans of goat cheese, Hathaway embarked on a yearlong "goat odyssey", traveling the U.S. in search of anything and everything goat.</span></span></span></span></i></li>
</ul>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-2209925028422871362010-05-18T09:43:00.001-06:002010-05-18T09:43:27.815-06:00The Snowman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/S_K0vfEHySI/AAAAAAAABWw/QFNcaex95uU/s1600/snowman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/S_K0vfEHySI/AAAAAAAABWw/QFNcaex95uU/s200/snowman.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I've posted a piece on Norwegian Nordic Noir over at the Library version of <a href="http://bit.ly/dcYjfT" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FdcYjfT"><b>Pete's Picks</b></a>. Yesterday was Norway's national holiday, Constitution Day, so I chose a <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.jonesbo.com/"><b style="color: red;">Jo Nesbo</b></a> book (<a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12741J71V80N2.13094&profile=sapl-ext&uri=full=3100001%7E%21465990%7E%211&ri=1&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&source=%7E%21stalbert&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=snowman&index=.GW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1"><i style="color: #274e13;"><b>The Snowman</b></i></a>) for one of this week's <a href="http://bit.ly/ctHa7l" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FctHa7l"><i>St. Albert Gazette</i> Great Reading</a> picks. The other pick was an Icelandic novel, the latest mystery from <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.randomhouse.ca/author/results.pperl?authorid=59339"><b style="color: red;">Arnaldur Indridason</b></a> (<a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12741J71V80N2.13094&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21448474%7E%210&ri=3&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Arnaldur+Indridason&index=.GW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3"><b style="color: #274e13;"><i>Hypothermia</i></b></a>) - in honour of the infamous Eyjafjallajokull volcano!</div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-35328876194269240772010-04-22T14:53:00.000-06:002010-04-22T14:53:52.009-06:00The Big Thaw<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/S9C2TjAREEI/AAAAAAAABWQ/GF7YvKow4wg/s1600/solar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/S9C2TjAREEI/AAAAAAAABWQ/GF7YvKow4wg/s200/solar.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>I'd love to celebrate <span style="color: #274e13;">Earth Day</span> today. I'd love to take a walk along the banks of St. Albert's mighty Sturgeon River. But, alas, I have severe tree pollen allergies that keep me inside, wheezing at the window with red, gloppy eyes. Trees - I shake my fist at you!<br />
<br />
So I had a laugh when I read <b>Margaret Wente</b>'s latest rant in her <a href="http://bit.ly/aNIGB4" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FaNIGB4"><i>Globe and Mail</i></a> column. At the very end of a piece about the sex ed controversy in Ontario she veered off into bashing Earth Day:<br />
<blockquote>"If you’re a parent, it’s not sex ed that deserves to drive you nuts. It’s green ed. Today is Earth Day, as you have surely noticed – the holiest day in the school calendar. All across the land, millions of schoolchildren are being reminded that the glaciers are melting and the polar bears are drowning and the entire planet is in peril."</blockquote>Maybe it's an Alberta thing, but when I asked my junior high daughter what the plan was for Earth Day at her school, she grumpily replied, "Nothing. Nothing at all." So maybe Wente should relax, Earth Day orthodoxy isn't everywhere.<br />
<br />
Personally though, Earth Day seems entirely fine. Over its 40 years it has dropped most of its hemp and hippie roots, and seems mainstream enough that it can guilt even retrograde water bottle buyers into thinking twice.<br />
<br />
For the Library <a href="http://bit.ly/bsL5pZ" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FbsL5pZ">Good Reading</a> book picks in the <a href="http://bit.ly/9pRJC8" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F9pRJC8"><b><i>St. Albert Gazette</i> </b></a>this week I chose a couple books in honour of Earth Day.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/8Z5IEr" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8Z5IEr"><i><b>Solar</b></i></a> by <b>Ian McEwan</b><br />
McEwan's new novel, Solar, pokes fun at the climate change movement. A departure for the usually quite serious McEwan (<i>Atonement</i>), Solar is a satirical novel about climate change! Michael Beard is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist coasting on work from years past. A freak accident gives him an opportunity to save his fifth marriage, reinvigorate his career and perhaps save the world!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/9w7E1r" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F9w7E1r"><i><b>The Big Thaw</b></i></a> by <b>Ed Struzik</b><br />
A slow economy and debates about data may diminish the celebration of Earth Day this year but the fact remains: our Earth is warming. Edmonton writer Struzik has been nominated for a 2010 Alberta Literary Award for this fascinating and alarming investigation of Arctic climate change, based on his eleven trips through the north.Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-35037850395979328042010-02-05T17:44:00.002-07:002010-02-05T17:47:55.584-07:00The Fatal Shore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/S2y8F6IVoWI/AAAAAAAABVw/lOE7s-nKzS8/s1600-h/fatal+shore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/S2y8F6IVoWI/AAAAAAAABVw/lOE7s-nKzS8/s200/fatal+shore.jpg" width="129" /></a></div><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="color: black;">My library-related posts for this blog have shifted over to the <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.sapl.ab.ca/" style="color: blue;">St. Albert Public Library</a>'s new website. Go<a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.sapl.ab.ca/blog/petes-picks/2010-02/fatal-shore"> <b style="color: blue;">here</b></a></span><span style="color: black;"> for a post on Australia Day (January 26) books like<b style="color: #38761d;"><i> The Fatal Shore</i></b></span></span><i style="color: #38761d;"><b> </b></i><span style="color: black;">and novels by <b style="color: red;">Kate Grenville</b>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">Thanks,</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"> </span>Pete the Libarbarian.Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-48036946717289291802009-12-31T13:07:00.004-07:002010-01-02T23:58:34.964-07:00Zeitoun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sz0D6n0j8dI/AAAAAAAABVQ/yP-zZ9GIwEo/s1600-h/zeitoun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sz0D6n0j8dI/AAAAAAAABVQ/yP-zZ9GIwEo/s200/zeitoun.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It isn't cool to admit, I know, but I love lists. And as this is the last day of the decade there are lots of lists out there to enjoy. Of course, some grumble that the decade doesn't end until next year (remember the same argument in 1999?). And there is no consensus on what to call the decade (the Noughts? the Oughts? the Zeros? the Noughties?). There is some consensus among the lists about some of the decade's best books. <b style="color: red;">Jonathan Franzen</b>'s <i style="color: #38761d;"><b><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=126G5014280K9.3084&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007~!229970~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3&source=~!stalbert&term=The+corrections+%2F&index=PALLTI">The Corrections</a></b></i> (2001) and <b style="color: red;">Michael Chabon</b>'s <i style="color: #38761d;"><b><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=126G5014280K9.3084&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007~!187868~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=5&source=~!stalbert&term=The+amazing+adventures+of+Kavalier+and+Clay+%2F&index=PALLTI">The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay</a></b></i> (2000) show up on many lists.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For my year and decade-ending <i style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=126G5014280K9.3084&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100006~!165792~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=7&source=~!stalbert&term=Adult%3A+Gazette+Great+Reading&index=BSTLLR">St. Albert Gazette</a></span></span> </b></i>book picks I chose two books from a writer who I think really represents the decade: <b><span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.mcsweeneys.net/authorpages/eggers/eggers.html">Dave Eggers</a></span></b>. From the Gazette:<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><i style="color: #38761d;"><b><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12P2EY1786168.3086&profile=sapl-ext&source=~!stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!267613~!3&ri=3&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=heartbreaking&index=.TW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3">A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius</a></b></i> In 2000, the decade began with the debut of an exciting young writer and his groundbreaking memoir. Taking the ironic tone of 1990s postmodernism and blending it with a new sincerity, Eggers told the stunning story of his life — his mother and father dying of cancer within a month of each other, and his struggle to raise his little brother alone.<br />
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<i style="color: #38761d;"><b><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12P2EY1786168.3086&profile=sapl-ext&source=~!stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!450772~!1&ri=7&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Eggers,+Dave.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=7">Zeitoun</a></b></i> The decade ends as it began, with an excellent book from Dave Eggers. Here Eggers uses narrative non-fiction to tell the moving, true story of one New Orleans family during and after hurricane Katrina. Adulrahman Zeitoun remained in New Orleans during the storm, helping other victims, but disappeared a week later.<br />
</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Happy New Year all!<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My thanks to Calgary Public Library Signal Hill branch for the wifi that enabled this post!<br />
</div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-26141848784069974362009-12-04T14:56:00.001-07:002009-12-04T14:57:29.745-07:00The Year that Follows<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmElup7nWI/AAAAAAAABUY/hOiLEhtBIc4/s1600-h/kid+westin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmElup7nWI/AAAAAAAABUY/hOiLEhtBIc4/s320/kid+westin.jpg" /></a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmE0gQN03I/AAAAAAAABUg/eQ8pO0WfcoE/s1600-h/kid+lasser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmE0gQN03I/AAAAAAAABUg/eQ8pO0WfcoE/s200/kid+lasser.jpg" /></a> </div>Every time I see a current <a href="http://bit.ly/8F6yHS" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8F6yHS">ad for Westin hotels</a> (above) I think of 9/11. I assume estin would rather I thought of one of their hotels (like the delightful <a href="http://bit.ly/7sRHJH" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F7sRHJH">Westin Maui in Ka'anapali</a>). But the stock photo the ad uses of a boy running through beach grass is almost identical to the front cover of <a href="http://bit.ly/7mZqu3" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F7mZqu3"><b style="color: red;">Scott Lasser</b></a>'s 9/11 novel, <a href="http://bit.ly/5TuYSj" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5TuYSj"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Year that Follows</b></i></a>. The running boy in beach grass reminds me of this spring's <a href="http://bit.ly/4y3Kfj" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4y3Kfj">Beachgate</a>, where a similar shot of kids on an English beach was used to promote Alberta (below). There's something irresistible about blond kids running on a beach to advertisers and branders!<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmE8pZcfZI/AAAAAAAABUo/oTzCj28JQmk/s1600-h/albertacampaign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmE8pZcfZI/AAAAAAAABUo/oTzCj28JQmk/s400/albertacampaign.jpg" /></a><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I recommended the Lasser book in September as a 9/11 read for my <a href="http://bit.ly/6M5Ud5" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6M5Ud5">Gazette newspaper book picks</a>:<br />
</div><blockquote>When a bond trader dies in the 9/11 attacks, his family must deal with the consequences in "the year that follows". His sister and father struggle with their grief and their relationship, but also with a mystery left behind: the search for an orphaned infant son. A moving novel of grief and family ties.<br />
</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Year that Follows</i> is a real tear-jerker, so seeing the same photo used for an ad for vacations is jarring. It isn't uncommon for different books to share the same cover however. There are blogs that feature copycat covers, including <a href="http://bit.ly/61JyzV" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F61JyzV">She Reads and Reads</a>, which pointed to a recent one involving <a href="http://bit.ly/86TQCd" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F86TQCd"><b style="color: red;">Penelope Lively</b></a>'s novel, <a href="http://bit.ly/5imJZu" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5imJZu"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Consequences</b></i></a> (below). Other sites are <a href="http://bit.ly/7FQOPH" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F7FQOPH">here</a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/6IKxco" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6IKxco">here</a>. <a href="http://bit.ly/6cQLPT" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6cQLPT"><b style="color: red;">Chip Kidd</b></a> is the king of book cover design - read about him and other designers <a href="http://bit.ly/4FcDKR" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4FcDKR">here</a>.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmFPdUJWtI/AAAAAAAABUw/_bJK5N8ZPFo/s1600-h/the+wreckage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmFPdUJWtI/AAAAAAAABUw/_bJK5N8ZPFo/s200/the+wreckage.jpg" /></a><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmFRTAAUnI/AAAAAAAABU4/ft4gHVE636I/s1600-h/consequences.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxmFRTAAUnI/AAAAAAAABU4/ft4gHVE636I/s200/consequences.jpg" /></a><br />
</div></div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-47405573300618271522009-12-01T15:04:00.007-07:002009-12-01T15:17:24.736-07:00Canada Reads 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxViP0Aun-I/AAAAAAAABS4/wwpgYm9b4MU/s1600/dec1-panelists.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxViP0Aun-I/AAAAAAAABS4/wwpgYm9b4MU/s200/dec1-panelists.jpg" width="239" /></a> The 2010 edition of <a href="http://bit.ly/8UK8id" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8UK8id"><b style="color: blue;">CBC's Canada Reads</b></a> was launched with the announcement of the books and their defenders this morning. The debates will run on CBC Radio from March 8-12, 2010. Once again <a href="http://bit.ly/64x0DK" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F64x0DK"><b style="color: red;">Jian <b><b>Ghomeshi</b></b></b></a> <span style="color: black;">will host.</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black;">This group of CanCon has a fair amount of EdCon, with one novel,<i><b> Good to a Fault</b></i>, by Edmonton's <b>Marina Endicott</b> and another novel, <b><i>Generation X</i></b>, defended by</span> Edmonton musician and Poet Laureate <b>Rolly Pemberton</b> (aka Cadence Weapon). <a href="http://bit.ly/7IhFWh" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F7IhFWh"><i style="color: blue;"><b>The Edmontonian</b></i></a> blog calls it "Edmonton Reads" (<i>The Edmontonian</i> blogger Alexis Kienlen<em></em> will be blogging about the Canada Reads at the <a href="http://bit.ly/8bb9Cp" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8bb9Cp"><i style="color: blue;"><b>Roughing it in the Bush</b></i></a> blog). Here's the 2010 Canada Reads books:<br />
<ul><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxWSLCn4GiI/AAAAAAAABTI/yjQWoPKormY/s1600/cadence-weapon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/5igdGd" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5igdGd"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Jade Peony</b></i></a> by <b><span style="color: red;">Wayson Choy</span>. </b>Defended by <b>Samantha Nutt</b>. A 1995 novel set in Vancouver written by a Toronto writer and defended by a Toronto physician/humanitarian.<b><i style="color: #38761d;"> </i></b></li>
<li><b><a href="http://bit.ly/4Ph1M9" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4Ph1M9"><i style="color: #38761d;">Good to a Fault</i></a> </b>by<b> <span style="color: red;">Marina Endicott</span></b>. Defended by <b>Simi Sara</b>. A 2008 novel set in Saskatoon written by an Edmonton writer and defended by a Vancouver broadcaster.<i style="color: #38761d;"><b> </b></i></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/4TW1yw" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4TW1yw"><b style="color: #38761d;"><i>Nikolski </i></b></a>by <b style="color: red;">Nicolas Dickner</b>. Defended by <b>Michel Vézina</b>. A 2005 novel set in Montreal written in French by a Montreal writer and defended by a Montreal writer and critic.<i style="color: #38761d;"><b><br />
</b></i></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/6csWJy" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6csWJy"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Generation X</b></i></a> by <b style="color: red;">Douglas Coupland</b>. Defended by <b>Roland Pemberton</b>. A 1991 novel set in California written by a Vancouver writer and defended by an Edmonton musician.<i style="color: #38761d;"><b> </b></i></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/6SnlWQ" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6SnlWQ"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Fall on Your Knees</b></i></a> by <b style="color: red;">Ann-Marie MacDonald</b><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">. Defended by </span></span><b>Perdita Felicien</b>. A 1996 novel set in Nova Scotia written by a Toronto writer and defended by a Toronto athlete.</li>
</ul></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxWSAEU-QAI/AAAAAAAABTA/rUnTeqvtvvM/s1600/coyote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxWSAEU-QAI/AAAAAAAABTA/rUnTeqvtvvM/s200/coyote.jpg" /></a>A solid list of great books. Maybe a little too solid, as they are all award-winners of various kinds and except for <b><i>Nikolski</i></b> they are all very well-known books. With <i><b>Fall on Your Knees</b></i> a 2002 Oprah Book Club pick I'm pretty sure many folks have already read the book. I'm surprised a little by Pemberton's pick, <b><i>Generation X</i></b>. Published in 1991 it is the moldy-oldy of this group, and for me it seems a book that had its moment in the sun but now seems a bit quaint. Coupland has just published a sort-of-sequel, <a href="http://bit.ly/5MuBS3" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5MuBS3"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Generation A</b></i></a>, so perhaps I should have another look. Pemberton could have shone the light on an Edmonton book, like <a href="http://bit.ly/4Sa8V9" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4Sa8V9"><b style="color: red;">Minister Faust</b></a>'s acclaimed SF novel <a href="http://bit.ly/6FDrCt" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6FDrCt"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Coyote Kings of the Space-Aged Bachelor Pad</b></i></a>. Faust has been compared to Nalo Hopkinson, whose book <a href="http://bit.ly/739kG8" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F739kG8"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Brown Girl in the Ring</b></i></a> was a 2008 Canada Reads' pick. I'm sure there is a complicated process behind the scenes picking defenders, books and authors, with the requisite cross-Canada representation (it is a CBC production after all!), so I won't hold it against Mr. Weapon.<br />
The Library has at least one copy of each book at present, and we are buying more as demand requires.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxWTOKogDxI/AAAAAAAABTY/1J2qPucLJEg/s1600/c+reads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxWTOKogDxI/AAAAAAAABTY/1J2qPucLJEg/s320/c+reads.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><ul></ul></div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-37131205824661233112009-11-30T16:15:00.004-07:002009-11-30T16:24:48.174-07:00Holodomor<div style="text-align: justify;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxRJPWJHeOI/AAAAAAAABSg/cKNHW5SC9A4/s1600/holodomor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxRJPWJHeOI/AAAAAAAABSg/cKNHW5SC9A4/s200/holodomor.jpg" /></a>There were two memorials held in Edmonton on Saturday, both remembering acts of inhumanity that continue to reverberate in the community. The memorials were very different, one remembering a act of state genocide against an entire nation over 70 years ago, another remembering a single act of violence against an Edmonton teenager just a few years ago. The <i>Edmonton Journal</i>'s front page on Sunday carried <a href="http://bit.ly/73eeu9" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F73eeu9">a picture of a service</a> at Edmonton City Hall for the annual commemoration of the Holodomor famine genocide of 1932-33 in Ukraine. <a href="http://bit.ly/6rn7Zw" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6rn7Zw" style="color: red;"><b>Robert Conquest</b></a>'s book, <a href="http://bit.ly/5qzQWA" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5qzQWA"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine</b></i></a> was instrumental in changing world attitudes towards the famine. <a href="http://bit.ly/872dQ4" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F872dQ4"><b style="color: red;">Lubomyr Luciuk</b></a> is a Ukrainian Canadian activist and academic who published <a href="http://bit.ly/5N5sO0" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5N5sO0"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Holodomor: Reflections on the Great Famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine</b></i></a> in 2008. This is a collection of essays and documents discussin the famine, including the text of the 2008 <a href="http://bit.ly/4J6DcZ" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4J6DcZ"><b>Canadian Statute</b></a> which officially established <a href="http://bit.ly/4J6DcZ" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4J6DcZ">Holodomor Memorial Day </a>and officially recognized "the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 as an act of genocide". [Edmonton Holodomor Memorial pictured above left]<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxRRxU5EsyI/AAAAAAAABSo/myqUXuUYQfM/s1600/evan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SxRRxU5EsyI/AAAAAAAABSo/myqUXuUYQfM/s200/evan2.jpg" /></a>The other memorial was an annual indoor soccer match, <b style="color: orange;"><a href="http://bit.ly/8Npbbd" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8Npbbd">EVAN's Game</a></b>, which remembers <b><span style="color: red;">Evan Grykuliak</span>. </b>Evan was the popular student and soccer player who was killed in 2006 at his 17th birthday party by a youth who has since been convicted of the crime and sentenced as an adult. EVAN (End Violent Acts Now)'s Game remembers Evan as a soccer player and raises awareness and funds for anti-bullying programs in Edmonton schools. This year a group of west-end U18 community players took on the Edmonton Police Service Masters team, with the result a draw 3 - 3 after an exciting comeback by the teens. Can soccer <a href="http://bit.ly/5EMlSL" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5EMlSL"><b>change the world</b></a>? Perhaps not, but Evan's Game is an inspiring response to a terrible event.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Books reviewed and noted from Sunday's <i style="color: blue;"><b>Edmonton Journal</b></i> (November 29, 2009)<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reviewed in <i><b>Books & Authors</b></i>: Fiction:<i style="color: #38761d;"><b> </b></i><br />
</div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><a href="http://bit.ly/4pZ0w4" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4pZ0w4"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>A Change in Altitude</b></i></a> by <b style="color: red;">Anita Shreve</b> "Shreve's story is certainly thought-provoking" says local author and reviewer <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://ow.ly/HgPT">Debby Waldman</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/7gI9jU" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F7gI9jU"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Day After Night</b></i></a> by <b style="color: red;">Anita Diamant</b> "A solid introduction to Holocaust literature.... an easy and entertaining read, but it lacks the spark and freshness that could have made it truly transcendent " says <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://ow.ly/HgPT">Debby Waldman</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/8ShJeZ" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8ShJeZ"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Peter & Max: A Fables Novel</b></i></a> and <i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book One</b></i> by <b style="color: red;">Bill Willingham</b> Reviewer and author <b style="color: red;"><a href="http://bit.ly/4vrM2k" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4vrM2k">Robert J. Wiersem</a><a href="http://bit.ly/4vrM2k" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4vrM2k">a</a></b> notes that both titles serve as good introductions to Willingham's Fabletown graphic novel stories, with Peter & Max the first prose novel in the series.</li>
</ul><div style="text-align: justify;"> Reviewed in <i><b>Books & Authors</b></i>: Non-Fiction:<i style="color: #38761d;"><b> </b></i><br />
</div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b><a href="http://bit.ly/7CLoTQ" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F7CLoTQ">A Soldier First: Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War</a><span style="color: black;"> </span></b></i><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="color: black;">by </span></span><span style="color: red;"><b>Rick Hillier</b></span><i style="color: #38761d;"><b> </b></i><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="color: black;"><i>Ottawa Citizen </i>reviewer <a href="http://bit.ly/8RHAvE" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8RHAvE"><b>David Pugliese</b></a> notes the retired Canadian general's memoir is a "media-savvy take on the Afghan mission" that is "strong on patriotism and weak on details".</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Gravity, Steam and Steel: An Illustrated Railway History of Roger's Pass</b></i> by <b style="color: red;">Graeme Pole</b> "A marvellous, jaw-dropping rendering of the monumental effort it took to lay the tracks through Roger's Pass" says the Calgary Herald's <a href="http://bit.ly/8dSdSe" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8dSdSe"><b>Naomi Lakritz</b></a>. </li>
</ul>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-33405059919373263382009-11-20T15:57:00.004-07:002009-11-20T16:33:56.058-07:00The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest<div style="text-align: justify;"><href="http: hip.sapl.ab.ca="" ipac.jsp?session="V2E8408A05140.3171&profile=sapl-ext&uri=full=3100001%7E%21457032%7E%212&ri=3&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&source=%7E%21stalbert&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Millennium+trilogy+series&index=&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3"" ipac20="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404825293150232882" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SwHL99dEITI/AAAAAAAABRY/KL4vbLRrb3Y/s200/hornet.jpg" style="float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 142px;" />I'm chuffed. The <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.sapl.ab.ca/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">St. Albert Public Library</span></a> is the first Alberta library to get a copy of the new <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.stieglarsson.com/"><span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">Stieg Larsson</span></a> novel, <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=Q25840G79V546.3168&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21386428%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=The+girl+who+kicked+the+hornet%27s+nest+%28%233%29+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="color: #009900; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest</span></a>, into patrons' hands! It looks like <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://ipac2.vpl.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125Q4087657OW.109558&menu=search&aspect=subtab97&npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=pac&ri=1&source=%7E%21horizon&index=.TW&term=hornet%27s+nest+kicked&x=0&y=0&aspect=subtab97"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Vancouver Public Library</span></a> beat us to the national title. This is the third and final book of the <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=V2E8408A05140.3171&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100020%7E%21316987%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Millennium+trilogy+series&index="><span style="color: #009900; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Millennium Trilogy</span></a> that Larsson handed into his publisher before he passed away in 2004. <span style="font-style: italic;">Hornet's Nest</span> won't be published in North America until May or June 2010, but we have a single copy of the 2009 British edition (by way of purchase in Australia). The first two of the trilogy:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/8OgSGD" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8OgSGD"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo</b></i></a> (2008)<b style="color: #38761d;"><i> </i></b><br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/8OgSGD" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8OgSGD"><b style="color: #38761d;"><i>The Girl Who Played With Fire</i></b></a> (2009)<br />
<br />
This situation is an unusual publishing world quirk. However, it isn't uncommon for British titles to be published in Canada before the American edition. Booker prize nominees often are unavailable in the US but available here. Hilary Mantel's novel, <a href="http://bit.ly/7aApvN" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F7aApvN"><span style="color: #38761d; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Wolf Hall</span></a>, wasn't due for US publication until 2010 - until it won the Booker Prize and the release date was moved forward. See, keeping Canada's remaining links with the motherland has its perks! Rule Britannia!<br />
<br />
With only one copy available you may have to be patient waiting for <i>Hornet's Nest</i>. Bide your time with some other great Scandinavian crime fiction. The recent BBC series starring Kenneth Branagh as Ystad, Sweden detective Kurt Wallander has made the books by <a href="http://bit.ly/8eiCGR" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8eiCGR"><b style="color: red;">Henning Mankell </b></a>more popular than ever. [Library has the series on <a href="http://bit.ly/7QMIha" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F7QMIha"><b style="color: #741b47;">DVD</b></a>] In the summer of 2009 Branagh filmed three more of the books in Sweden. Below is a list of the Wallander books in chronological reading order. <b><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><i style="color: #38761d;">The Pyramid</i></a> </b>is<b> </b>a group of stories Mankell wrote later that fill in some of the gaps in Wallander's life history. <a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Faceless Killers</b></i></a> was the novel that first introduced Wallander to readers. Below the Wallander titles, with BBC I meaning a title filmed for last year's Branagh series, BBC II for the upcoming series filmed the summer of 2009.<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta><meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator"></meta><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cpbailey%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cpbailey%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cpbailey%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"></link><style>
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<ul><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Swb42yO-9nI/AAAAAAAABR4/JOjzBRszS0I/s1600/branagh-415x511.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Swb42yO-9nI/AAAAAAAABR4/JOjzBRszS0I/s200/branagh-415x511.jpg" /></a>
<li><i><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><b style="color: #38761d;">The Pyramid</b></a> </i>(stories) (1999)<i><o:p></o:p></i></li>
<li><i><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><b style="color: #38761d;">Faceless Killers</b></a> </i>(1991) BBC II<i><o:p></o:p></i></li>
<li><i><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><b style="color: #38761d;">The Dogs of Riga</b></a><b> </b></i>(1992)<i><o:p></o:p></i></li>
<li><i><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><b style="color: #38761d;">The White Lioness</b></a> </i>(1993)<i><o:p></o:p></i></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><i><b><span style="color: #38761d;">The Man Who Smiled</span></b></i></a> (1994<i><o:p></o:p></i>) BBC II<br />
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<li><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><i><b style="color: #38761d;">Sidetracked</b></i></a> (1995<i><o:p></o:p></i>) BBC I<br />
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<li><i><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;">The Fifth Woman</span></b></a> </i>(1996<i><o:p></o:p></i>) BBC II<br />
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<li><i><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><b><span style="color: #38761d;">One Step Behind</span></b> </a> </i>(1997<i><o:p></o:p></i>) BBC I<br />
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<li><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><i><b style="color: #38761d;">Firewall</b> </i></a> (1998<i><o:p></o:p></i>) BBC I</li>
</ul>Mankell brought forward a new detective, Inspector Stefan Lindman, in <i><o:p></o:p><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><b style="color: #38761d;">The Return of the Dancing Master</b></a> </i>(2000)<i><o:p></o:p></i>. There are some links to Wallander in the book. More recently Manning made Wallander's daughter Linda a detective in <i><a href="http://bit.ly/5E4T9s" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5E4T9s"><b style="color: #38761d;">Before the Frost</b></a> </i>(2002)<i><o:p></o:p></i>.<br />
<a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SwcYJI3TbLI/AAAAAAAABSA/i0YJcLUl5Ds/s1600/nesser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SwcYJI3TbLI/AAAAAAAABSA/i0YJcLUl5Ds/s200/nesser.jpg" /></a><br />
A third Swedish crime writer, Hakan Nesser, was called the "odd man out" amongst the trio of Mankell, Larsson and Nesse by <a href="http://bit.ly/8RtsfM" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F8RtsfM"><i style="color: #0b5394;"><b>The Times</b></i></a>. Nesser's detective is Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, with the novels taking place in Maardam in a country that seems a mixture of Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.<br />
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<ul><li><a href="http://bit.ly/4XVRSD" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4XVRSD"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Borkmann's Point</b></i></a> (2006)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/4XVRSD" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4XVRSD"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Return</b></i> </a>(2007)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/4XVRSD" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4XVRSD"><i><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Mind's Eye</span></b></i> </a>(2008)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/4XVRSD" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F4XVRSD"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Woman with Birthmark</b></i></a> (2009)<br />
</li>
</ul><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Swcb5d_9KBI/AAAAAAAABSI/qAVC-Ahtgt4/s1600/fossum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Swcb5d_9KBI/AAAAAAAABSI/qAVC-Ahtgt4/s200/fossum.jpg" /></a>Next door in Norway we have some great crime writers, including <a href="http://bit.ly/7Ampvg" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F7Ampvg"><b style="color: red;">Karin Fossum</b></a>, who I have recommended before. Fossum's mystery series focuses on small-town police Inspector Konrad Sejer, with more psycholical thriller to them than Mankell's procedurals. Here are the Sejer books available in English so far:<br />
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<ul><li><a href="http://bit.ly/6uIbpd" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6uIbpd"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Don't Look Back</b></i></a> <span style="color: black;">(</span>2002<span style="color: black;">)</span></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/6uIbpd" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6uIbpd"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>He Who Fears the Wolf</b></i></a> (2003)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/6uIbpd" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6uIbpd"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>When the Devil Holds the Candle</b></i></a> (2004)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/6uIbpd" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6uIbpd"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Indian Bride</b></i></a> (aka <i>Calling Out For You</i>) (2005)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/6uIbpd" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6uIbpd"><i><b style="color: #38761d;">Black Seconds</b></i></a> (2007)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/6uIbpd" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F6uIbpd"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Water's Edge</b></i></a> (2009)</li>
</ul>For more Swedish crime check out <b style="color: red;">Camilla Läckberg</b><style>
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</style>'s <a href="http://bit.ly/5cT5ts" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5cT5ts"><i><b>Top 10 Swedish Crime Novels</b></i></a> from <a href="http://bit.ly/5cT5ts" rel="http://bit.ly/plugins/iframe?hashUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F5cT5ts"><i style="color: #0b5394;"><b>The Guardian</b></i></a>. (burial ground in Wallander's Ystad below)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Swceo5MhuvI/AAAAAAAABSQ/feaGUolAmd8/s1600/Burial-place-in-Ystad-Swe-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Swceo5MhuvI/AAAAAAAABSQ/feaGUolAmd8/s400/Burial-place-in-Ystad-Swe-001.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
</div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-81297247872766313032009-11-10T17:21:00.014-07:002009-11-17T10:41:36.387-07:00Berlin Noir<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Svn17cg3VHI/AAAAAAAABQY/rbeF6wDX_84/s1600-h/Wall+-+Rosa+Luxemburg.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Svn17cg3VHI/AAAAAAAABQY/rbeF6wDX_84/s400/Wall+-+Rosa+Luxemburg.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402619629622744178" border="0" /></a>Back in 1986 I decided it was a good idea to travel all around Europe with nothing but<span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> </span><a href="http://bit.ly/2GgiHm"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Let's Go Europe</span> </span></a>and a giant paperback of the <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12581N04BJ343.95&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100019%7E%2146117%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Hardy%2C+Thomas%2C+1840-1928.&index=PZAUTH"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Collected Novels of Thomas Hardy</span></a>. Sure, thousands of miles away from home, why not read the most depressing novels in the English language? [<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">ABE Books</span> compiled <a href="http://bit.ly/34Sq7k"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Bleak Books: The Top Ten Most Depressing Books</span></a> awhile ago. Hardy's <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1258X4L530O68.114&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%2113527%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Jude+the+obscure+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Jude the Obscure</span></a> was #3]<br /></div>But Hardy was good prep for a day in grim East Berlin. We walked past Checkpoint Charlie and it felt like the <a style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-weight: bold;" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12P7OL5784062.797&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100019%7E%2188740%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Morrissey+%28Musician%29&index=PZAUTH">Morrissey</a> song: "Every day is like Sunday / Every day is silent and grey". Night to West Berlin's brilliant shining day of 24 hour bars and bustling main drag, the Kurfürstendamm (the Ku'damm). There was a real sense of history in East Berlin though. There was less postwar reconstruction, especially close to the Wall where many of the buildings were full of bullet holes from the war. The picture above is me in East Berlin on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Luxemburg">Rosa Luxemburg</a> Strasse, with one of the infamous 27 horsepower East German <a href="http://www.trabant.ca/">Trabant</a> cars behind me. [Edit Nov. 17 - <a href="http://tgam.ca/Djl"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Globe</span></a> has a <a href="http://tgam.ca/Djl"><span style="font-weight: bold;">slide show</span></a> of new hipster car - the Trabant!]<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Rosa Luxemburg was a Communist pioneer, killed during a rebellion in Berlin in 1919. Novelist <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/rosa/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Jonathan Rabb</span></a> wrote a detective novel, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12P7OL5784062.797&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21374621%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Rosa+%3A+a+novel+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Rosa</span></a>, using her story. PW said Rabb's "re-creation of post-World War I Berlin is masterly". Rabb has a new (2009) sequel to <span style="font-style: italic;">Rosa</span> out, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12P7OL5784062.797&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21439641%7E%210&ri=6&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Rabb,+Jonathan.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=6"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Shadow and Light</span></a>, set in 1927 Berlin.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1GX8A50345828.306&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%2117709%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=8&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Berlin+noir+%2F&index=PALLTI"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 127px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvoEL-vlk2I/AAAAAAAABQo/TFiRnlGxIbw/s200/berlin+noir.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402635306851996514" border="0" /></a><br /></div>The master of Berlin-set detective fiction is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Kerr"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Philip Kerr</span></a>, with his trilogy <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12P7OL5784062.797&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%2117709%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Berlin+noir+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Berlin Noir</span></a> (1993), originally published singly as <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">March Violets</span> (1989), <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Pale Criminal</span> (1990) and <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">A German Requiem</span> (1991). The books star Bernie Gunther as a very hard-boiled detective in 1936, 1938 and 1947 Berlin (and Vienna in the 3rd one). Gunther fans were delighted when a new novel appeared in 2006, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1GX8A50345828.306&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21368968%7E%217&ri=2&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Kerr,+Philip.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The One From the Other</span></a>, followed by <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1GX8A50345828.306&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21439265%7E%211&ri=4&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Kerr,+Philip.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=4"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">A Quiet Flame</span></a> (2008) and soon <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">If the Dead Rise Not</span> (2010). Highly, highly recommended, particularly <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">March Violets</span>.<br /><br />If you are looking for that Alan Furst-style eve-of-destruction at<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sv30OjSt3-I/AAAAAAAABRI/vNMNUmUKyVg/s1600-h/zoo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 132px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sv30OjSt3-I/AAAAAAAABRI/vNMNUmUKyVg/s200/zoo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403743658743554018" border="0" /></a>mosphere, <a href="http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/david-downing/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">David Downing</span></a> has two thrillers set in 1939 Berlin, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12581541L4DF8.399&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21382352%7E%213&ri=4&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Downing,+David,+1946-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=4"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Zoo St</span></a><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12581541L4DF8.399&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21382352%7E%213&ri=4&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Downing,+David,+1946-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=4"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">ation</span></a> (2007) and its sequel, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12581541L4DF8.399&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21416343%7E%212&ri=6&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Downing,+David,+1946-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=6"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Silesian Station</span></a> (2008). Both star Anglo-American journalist John Russell and concern the moral compromises war brings. <span style="font-style: italic;">Booklist</span> called <span style="font-style: italic;">Zoo Station</span> a "quiet but suspenseful tale of an ordinary man living in a dangerous place during a dangerous time".<i><br /></i></div><br />Veteran espionage writer <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Charles McCarry</span> was an American spy during the Cold War. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Christopher's Ghosts</span> begins in 1939 with Paul Christopher witnessing an atrocity committed by S.S. officer Franz Stutzer. 20 years later, back in Berlin during the Cold War, Stutzer emerges from the ruins looking to kill the last witness to his crime.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The best novel about the postwar/prewall period, the 1950s before the Wall's constr<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1GX8A50345828.306&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21200752%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=6&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=The+innocent+%2F&index=PALLTI"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 132px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvoCX-IkegI/AAAAAAAABQg/Xx_kYmEKmLU/s200/innocent.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402633313823521282" border="0" /></a>uction in 1961, is <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Ian McEwan</span>'s masterful, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1GX8A50345828.306&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21200752%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=6&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=The+innocent+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The Innocent</span></a>. This is the Ian McEwan of <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1257898QFO015.861&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21283663%7E%217&ri=3&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=McEwan,+Ian.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">A</span></a><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1257898QFO015.861&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21283663%7E%217&ri=3&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=McEwan,+Ian.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">tonement</span></a> fame. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Innocent</span> was the first McEwan novel I read and I was blown away by it. This is a psychological thriller built around naive young telephone technician Leonard Marnham, brought to 1954 Berlin to help work on a secret tunnel under the Soviet sector, but finds himself deep in other nefarious deeds. A nice slow build to a shocking climax.<br /><br />Paperbacks of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/feb/19/len-deighton-revival"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Len Deighton</span></a>'s spy novels can be found mouldering away on many a cottage shelf as they made excellent beach reads. He set many in Berlin, including the first spy thriller to star his character, British spy <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bernard Samson</span>: <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">Berlin Game</span> (1983). You can follow Samson through three sets of trilogies: <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">Game, Set and Match</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">; </span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;">Hook, Line and Sinker</span></span><a name="Review"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">; <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Faith, Ho</span></span></span></span></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sv30jBAEMXI/AAAAAAAABRQ/5rLeQ-k2Grw/s1600-h/branden.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 132px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sv30jBAEMXI/AAAAAAAABRQ/5rLeQ-k2Grw/s200/branden.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403744010315772274" border="0" /></a><a name="Review"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">pe and Charity</span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span>.</span></span></span></a><a name="Review"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span>Many have fallen out of print but Deighton may be due for a revival, especially with</span> </span></span></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/14/tarantino-deighton-trilogy">Quentin Tarentino</a> <span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">considering <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/14/tarantino-deighton-trilogy">filming</a> <span style="font-style: italic;">Game, Set and Match</span>.<br /></span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Finally, a thriller set just before the fall of the Wall, in September 1989: <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Brandenburg Gate</span> by <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Henry P</span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">orter</span>. A riveting tale of a former East German Stasi agent forced back into service in the waning days of the DDR to save his brother on the wrong side of the Wall. Simon Winchester called it a "total triumph...one of those bedside table books so thrilling you reach for it on waking."<br /></span></span><br />More Berlin? More Wall?<br /><ul><li>The <a href="http://bit.ly/5FuA6"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Guardian</span></a> has a <a href="http://bit.ly/5FuA6"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Top 10 Books about the Berlin Wall</span></a> list.</li><li>The <a href="http://bit.ly/ulNQV"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Globe and Mail</span></a> has <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Alison Gzowski</span>'s <a href="http://bit.ly/ulNQV"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Best Books on Berlin</span></a> list, including <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Jason Lutes</span>' graphic novel, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1T581T699381H.455&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21199600%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Berlin++%3A+city+of+stones+%3A+a+work+of+fiction+%28%231%29+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Berlin: City of Stones</span></a> and <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Chloe Aridjis</span>' novel <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1T581T699381H.455&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21354286%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Book+of+clouds+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;">Book of Clouds</span></a>.</li></ul></div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-71543957781692522442009-11-09T11:23:00.025-07:002009-11-12T09:46:34.118-07:00The Wall<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvhepNsslxI/AAAAAAAABQA/2LC1ShOdL_4/s1600-h/Wall1.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 255px; height: 373px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvhepNsslxI/AAAAAAAABQA/2LC1ShOdL_4/s400/Wall1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402171815175690002" border="0" /></a>Where were you on 11/9? I'm not sure. I was living in London, Ontario when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, but I don't remember November 9th in particular. That whole year was full of momentous events - glasnost, perestroika, Solidarity, Tienanmen, Timosoara.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Today I remember 1986, three years before the Wall's fall, when a friend and I were in Berlin for a few days. That's me above, writing rude things about East German President Erich Honecker on the Berlin Wall (or more likely, "I wuz here").<br /><br />Being at the Wall was an odd experience. Despite having grown up during the Cold War, having studied Soviet history in university, it was still felt strange to actually touch geopolitical reality. It was actually true, a country imprisoning its own people. A city literally divided by a giant wall. How could this really be?<br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SviPBRidkAI/AAAAAAAABQI/qVeiViYIM5g/s1600-h/Wall+2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 275px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SviPBRidkAI/AAAAAAAABQI/qVeiViYIM5g/s400/Wall+2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402225005081497602" border="0" /></a>From a tower near <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdamer_Platz">Potsdamer Platz </a>I looked down at the Wall and saw that "the Wall" was actually a system of walls, fences and a barren no-man's land (see 1986 photo above). Talk among the tourists was that a mound of dirt in the middle of no-man's land was where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerbunker">Hitler's bunker</a> was. The Platz was the site of the worst violence during the 1953 East German uprising. And the Wall was first breached at the Platz in 1989.<br /><br />Today the Wall is long gone and Potsdamer Platz is full of glitzy corporate buildings (below in 2007). In her <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Berlin-Wall-World-Divided-1961-1989/dp/0060786132"><span style="font-weight: bold;">review</span></a> of <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1257978E6190G.1574&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100019%7E%21232983%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Taylor%2C+Fred%2C+1947-&index=PZAUTH"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Frederick Taylor</span></a>'s book about the wall, <a href="http://www.anneapplebaum.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Anne Applebaum</span></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SviY3PSvhwI/AAAAAAAABQQ/HLCbHuq9KRY/s1600-h/platz.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 255px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SviY3PSvhwI/AAAAAAAABQQ/HLCbHuq9KRY/s400/platz.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402235827796281090" border="0" /></a>wrote:<br /><blockquote>To anyone who remembers the surreal presence of the Berlin Wall, its absence now seems little short of miraculous. Walk from the Tiergarten, once in the West, across Pariser Platz, once a wasteland, and have a beer on the Unter den Linden, once in the East. Now it takes a few minutes; before November 1989, it wouldn't have been possible at all. Or drive through Berlin's western suburbs: Although there are neighborhoods where the streets form odd patterns, it is no longer possible to say which house was on which side of the border back then, so thorough has been the renovation and regeneration of the landscape. And yet at the time, the concrete structure of the Wall seemed so permanent, so indestructible.</blockquote>Some folks aren't all happy with the shiny new Berlin and Germany. There's even a name for this nostalgia for the old days: ostalgie. (ost=east) Eleanor Wachtel interviewed prominent German writer Ingo Schulze yesterday on CBC's Writers and Company (replayed Wednesday or podcast). He grew up in the DDR (East Germany) and was happy the wall fell as he had the freedom to write. But he worries that in the new Germany "everything is commodified". He said in <a href="http://bit.ly/2k8ZpC"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Deutsche Welle</span></a>:<br /><blockquote>... public space is disappearing and being replaced by commercial space. Take Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Only tourists go there. Locals never do. It's not a proper public space -- it's a space that has been rented out to businesses. Democracy is about having public spaces. In the DDR, public space could only be used for official events. And now the public space that we have access to and should be using has been hijacked by commercialism. People are reduced to mere consumers.</blockquote>Or people say, "Well, at least we had jobs under Communism". Sure, and prisoners have jobs too! The <span style="font-style: italic;">Globe & Mail</span>'s <a href="http://bit.ly/1mmfNB"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Doug Saunders</span></a>, in one of his excellent pieces about the Berlin Wall anniversary, points to <a style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" href="http://bit.ly/1dhxUU">Archie Brown</a>'s new book <a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="http://bit.ly/1dhxUU">The Rise and Fall of Communism</a>. Brown notes that a key cause of the collapse of communism in Europe was the giant loans these governments owed to western banks. The loans were used to try and approximate a Western standard of living. By 1989 the western debt was unsustainable. Other good books on the ills of Communism:<br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Richard Pipes</span>, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=P2579808L360Y.1599&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21294249%7E%210&ri=2&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Pipes,+Richard.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Communism: A History</span></a> (2001) - A short overview from the Harvard professor and Reagan adviser: "Communism was not a good idea that went wrong; it was a bad idea"</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Robert Service</span>, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=P2579808L360Y.1599&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21387028%7E%213&ri=4&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Communism+--+History+--+20th+century.&index=.SW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=4"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">Comrades! A History of World Communism</span></a> (2007) - A scathing overview, with pithy lines such as calling Communist "fellow travelers" "Stalin's admiring slugs."</li><li><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=P2579808L360Y.1599&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21266212%7E%218&ri=6&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Communism+--+History+--+20th+century.&index=.SW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=6"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The Black Book o</span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">f Communism</span></a> (1999) - The groundbreaking catalogue of Communism's crimes which argued that Communism was morally no better than Nazism.</li></ul>For a focused look at the history of the Wall here are two recent books:<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Michael Myer</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><a style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1257L7U99243D.1570&profile=sapl-ext&uri=full%3D3100001%7E%21445518%7E%211&ri=2&term=berlin+wall&index=.SW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2&view=LIBRARY_JOURNAL_REVIEW&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&source=%7E%21stalbert&enhancedcontentdata=true%0A%09%09">The Year That Changed the World: the Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall</a> </span>(2009). Myer reminds Americans that the Wall did not fall because Ronald Reagan shouted "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"<br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Frederick Taylor</span>, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1257978E6190G.1574&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21389928%7E%212&ri=1&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=berlin+wall&index=.SW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989</span></a>. An excellent overview, full of intriguing personal stories, from the author of the acclaimed <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1257978E6190G.1574&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21118449%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Dresden%2C+Tuesday%2C+February+13%2C+1945+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Dresden</span></a>.<br /></li></ul>A new book by Russian historian <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Constantine Pleshakov</span>, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12579I6G54U82.1560&profile=sapl-ext&uri=full%3D3100001%7E%21457391%7E%210&ri=2&term=berlin+wall&index=.SW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2&view=PUBLISHERS_WEEKLY_REVIEW&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&source=%7E%21stalbert&enhancedcontentdata=true%0A%09%09"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">There Is No Freedom Without Bread! : 1989 and the Civil War That Brought Down Communism</span></a> notes that for the Soviet Bloc "making a living came first and was for many years almost enough to make the socialist experiment seem gratifying". But the command economy couldn't keep up its end of the social contract and the payment crisis accelerated discontent.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=P2579808L360Y.1599&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21284445%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=8&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=The+Lives+of+others.&index=PALLTI"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 139px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvoFjDCeysI/AAAAAAAABQ4/64zsHBxHcC0/s200/livesothers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402636802653604546" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The human cost of living within the "socialist experiment", indeed the true nastiness of, in this case the DDR, is shown well in the 2006 German film, <a href="http://bit.ly/VriCy"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">T</span></a><a href="http://bit.ly/VriCy"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">h</span></a><a href="http://bit.ly/VriCy"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">e</span></a><a href="http://bit.ly/VriCy"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> </span></a><a href="http://bit.ly/VriCy"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Lives of Others</span></a>. Even though it portrays a secret police officer ("Stasi") as having some sense of human decency, the overall picture gets the message across of a state that was a dark, Orwellian nightmare. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language film.<br /><br />For you<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=P2579808L360Y.1599&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21403687%7E%211&ri=11&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=S%C3%83%C2%ADs,+Peter,+1949-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=11"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 152px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvtAYCPxaxI/AAAAAAAABRA/dHdQesIWT2w/s200/wall+sis.aspx" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402982959625104146" border="0" /></a>nger readers there is the graphic novel by <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Peter Sis</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">T</span><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1257978E6190G.1574&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21403687%7E%211&ri=6&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=S%C3%83%C2%ADs,+Peter,+1949-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=6"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">he Wall: Growing Up</span></span></a><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1257978E6190G.1574&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21403687%7E%211&ri=6&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=S%C3%83%C2%ADs,+Peter,+1949-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=6"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> Behind the Iron Curtain</span></span></a>. Sis grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia before defecting in Los Angeles in 1982. In this book he tells his kids about his childhood, about learning at school to think and draw what he was told, and then his gradual rejection of Communism, thanks to things like rock and roll.<br /><br />Next post - some Berlin fiction of note.</div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-84897462301413158242009-11-03T10:16:00.013-07:002009-11-03T15:52:53.623-07:00PW Best Books of 2009<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCEpMI6sdI/AAAAAAAABOw/xzQOFl_XVkw/s1600-h/pw.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCEpMI6sdI/AAAAAAAABOw/xzQOFl_XVkw/s200/pw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399961796385354194" border="0" /></a>When our colleagues over at City Hall refer to "PW" they mean Public Works ("Gotta run - meeting out at PW today"). At the Library by PW we mean <a href="http://bit.ly/qTR"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Publishers Weekly</span></a>, the bible of the publishing industry and a source of reviews for our Library selection team<span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span>Generally PW reviews are short and positive (a must-buy!)<span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span>You run across them in the <a href="http://bit.ly/3tavAZ"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Library catalogue</span></a> as they are a featured review source along with <span style="font-style: italic;">Library Journal</span>. Yesterday PW published a well-considered list of their 100 <a href="http://bit.ly/SHPmC"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Best Books of 2009</span></a>, with a <a style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" href="http://bit.ly/3tavAZ">PW Top Ten</a> culled from the 100. The top ten is a good mix of interesting titles I think, but there has been a few comments and raised eyebrows in the blogosphere as none of the ten are by women writers.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCfk-1Y1-I/AAAAAAAABO4/VPuzTbvkXnI/s1600-h/cheever.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 115px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCfk-1Y1-I/AAAAAAAABO4/VPuzTbvkXnI/s200/cheever.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399991410908256226" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Non-fiction</span><br /><br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="http://bit.ly/1g3s8C"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;"><strong>Cheever: A Life</strong></span></a><em> by <a href="http://bit.ly/2SIxTT"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Blake Bailey</span></a></em><br />A biography of writer <a href="http://bit.ly/mPhnd"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">John Cheever</span></a>, the "Chekhov of the suburbs", who died in 1982. The Library has his <a href="http://bit.ly/12OFVY"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">collected stories</span></a>, his <a href="http://bit.ly/1pXqyk"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">journals</span></a> and his novel, <a style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="http://bit.ly/4CKe8P"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">The Wapshot Chronicle</span></a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong></strong></span><a href="http://bit.ly/3eCunh"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science</strong></span></a> <em></em><br />by <a href="http://bit.ly/4rgtV2"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Richard Holmes</span></a><br />Esteemed literary biographer Holmes looks back to the Romantics and a time when the sciences and the arts were not at war with each other. This summer marked the 50th anniversary of C.P. Snow's famous "Two cultures" <a href="http://bit.ly/Vm3up"><span style="font-weight: bold;">essay</span></a> about the divide that separates science and the arts. I'm reminded as well of Jenny Uglow's 2002 book, <a href="http://bit.ly/2dSD2j"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World</span></a>.<br /><strong></strong><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCfuFKVzAI/AAAAAAAABPA/kwExAt_mhVw/s1600-h/soulcraft.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 91px; height: 140px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCfuFKVzAI/AAAAAAAABPA/kwExAt_mhVw/s200/soulcraft.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399991567225572354" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/7yYjo"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>Shop C</strong></span></a><a href="http://bit.ly/7yYjo"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>las</strong></span></a><a href="http://bit.ly/7yYjo"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>s as Soulcraft</strong></span></a><em> </em><br />by <a href="http://bit.ly/1xguvg"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Matthew B. Crawford</span></a><br />For everyone contemplating a middle age crisis: a book making the case for ditching the white collar grind and working with one's hands.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><strong></strong></span><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1d2wng"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>Lost City </strong></span></a><a href="http://bit.ly/1d2wng"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>of</strong></span></a><a href="http://bit.ly/1d2wng"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong> Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon</strong></span></a> <em></em><br />by <a href="http://bit.ly/4lTnDD"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">David Grann</span></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCgGyGJFbI/AAAAAAAABPI/LCTu-47R_hE/s1600-h/lost+city.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 91px; height: 139px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCgGyGJFbI/AAAAAAAABPI/LCTu-47R_hE/s200/lost+city.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399991991604417970" border="0" /></a><br />I recommended this classic adventure tale as a great <a href="http://bit.ly/V0chn"><span style="font-weight: bold;">fall read</span></a>. <em></em>Grann tells of his experience in researching the story of explorer Percy Fawcett, who disappeared in 1925.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>A Fiery Peace in a Cold War </strong></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong></strong></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong></strong></span><em></em><br />by <a href="http://bit.ly/2CH99X"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Neil Sheehan</span></a><br />The only one on the list the Library doesn't have yet (we'll order it). The story of the development of the ICBM (that's intercontinental ballistic missile for the young folk). Sheehan is the author of one of the essential Vietnam books, <a style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" class="largeAnchor" title="A bright shining lie : John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam / Neil Sheehan." href="http://bit.ly/2CH99X">A Bright Shining Lie : John P</a><a style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" class="largeAnchor" title="A bright shining lie : John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam / Neil Sheehan." href="http://bit.ly/2CH99X">aul Vann and America in Vietnam</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fiction</span><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://bit.ly/AkyRE"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>Awai</strong></span></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCg-fHcCRI/AAAAAAAABPQ/oB1X8TQvXrQ/s1600-h/chaon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 102px; height: 156px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvCg-fHcCRI/AAAAAAAABPQ/oB1X8TQvXrQ/s200/chaon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399992948582254866" border="0" /></a><a href="http://bit.ly/AkyRE"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>t </strong></span></a><a href="http://bit.ly/AkyRE"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>Your Reply</strong></span></a> by <a href="http://bit.ly/4nVdcL"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Dan Chaon</span><em style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"></em></a><br />A book with buzz that I <a href="http://bit.ly/V0chn"><span style="font-weight: bold;">recommended</span></a> as a great fall read. In this novel Chaon deftly juggles three intriguing plots about people dropping their old lives and remaking themselves.<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1JXTbB"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>In Other Rooms, Other Wonders</strong></span></a> <em></em><br />by <a href="http://bit.ly/3q0Cif"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Daniyal Mueenuddin</span></a><br />A linked story collection about life in Pakistan beyond the insanity of Waziristan, from a Pakistani-American writer.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvChVpHGgvI/AAAAAAAABPY/oJ2ShIYZMBg/s1600-h/lavalle.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 177px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvChVpHGgvI/AAAAAAAABPY/oJ2ShIYZMBg/s200/lavalle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399993346402190066" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://bit.ly/21sSJ5"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>Big Machine</strong></span></a><em> </em>by <a href="http://bit.ly/4rLaAm"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Victor LaValle</span></a><br />LaValle is the cover boy for the PW Best Books issue (above). <span style="font-style: italic;">Kirkus </span>said of this novel: "Too idea-hungry and haywire to be fully successful, too alive and abrasive to be missed. The multicultural novel has come of age - smashingly."<a name="Review"></a><br /></div><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/2U0Rep"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><strong>Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi</strong></span></a><em> </em><br />by <a href="http://bit.ly/2Q7ADw"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Geof</span></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvChjb55daI/AAAAAAAABPg/l9yQqFFbRL8/s1600-h/dyer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 103px; height: 157px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SvChjb55daI/AAAAAAAABPg/l9yQqFFbRL8/s200/dyer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399993583375316386" border="0" /></a><a href="http://bit.ly/2Q7ADw"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">f Dyer</span></a><br />Dyer is one of those smart, witty English guys who cranks out brilliant fiction and non-fiction . In <a href="http://bit.ly/3ISVZ6"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It</span></a> he told of his own travels in search of enlightenment. In this novel he tells the story of an aging hipster traveling in search of enlightenment. And a girl.<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://bit.ly/3EuCUC"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Stitches</span></a> </strong><em></em>by <a href="http://bit.ly/1weC0L"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">David Small</span></a><br />Graphic memoir is threatening to become a genre of its own, with excellent books like <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Alison Bechdel</span>'s <a href="http://bit.ly/4dLclU"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic</span></a> or <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Jeff Lemire</span>'s <a href="http://bit.ly/4lI4rP"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Essex County</span></a> series, and many others out there. Here Small tells of his difficult childhood. Have a look at the trailer for an introduction to the book:<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dciZKTbDESk&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dciZKTbDESk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></div><br /></div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-64389476060670267762009-10-30T16:38:00.015-06:002009-11-02T12:23:34.169-07:00Ten Great Reads for Fall<style>!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.MsoFooter, li.MsoFooter, div.MsoFooter {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-link:"Footer Char"; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; tab-stops:center 3.0in right 6.0in; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.inside-copy, li.inside-copy, div.inside-copy {mso-style-name:inside-copy; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.booksubtitle {mso-style-name:booksubtitle; mso-style-unhide:no;} span.FooterChar {mso-style-name:"Footer Char"; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-locked:yes; mso-style-link:Footer; mso-ansi-font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:62.35pt 62.35pt 62.35pt 62.35pt; mso-header-margin:35.45pt; mso-footer-margin:35.45pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bit.ly/2EVA9h"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 115px; height: 182px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SutxKuoDczI/AAAAAAAABNg/Up9gPNLkbuQ/s200/waters.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398533007462331186" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="">Ten Great Reads for Fall</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Pete's Picks presented at the <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://www.stalbertrta.org/index.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">STARTA</span></a> (St. Albert Retired Teachers Association) breakfast meeting on October 30th. Thank you to hosts Brenda Kane and Jack Flaherty!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Two English ghost stories for Halloween:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.sarahwaters.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Sarah Waters</span></a><span style=""> </span><i style=""><a href="http://bit.ly/2EVA9h"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">The Little Stranger</span></a><o:p></o:p></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Waters is the critically-acclaimed author of neo-Victorian novels </span><span style="font-size:100%;">like <i style="">Fingersmith</i> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Tipping the Velvet</span>. She moved forward in </span><span style="font-size:100%;">time with her last novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Night Watch</span> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">to the Second World War. Now she looks at the grey world of postwar Britain. with her excellent take on the classic English haunted house story. A docto</span><span style="font-size:100%;">r is called to a decaying f</span><span style="font-size:100%;">amily manor in England to treat a young man’s war injury, but an evil presence in the house soon makes itself</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> known. Some resemblance to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Shirley Jackson</span></a>’s classic <a href="http://bit.ly/13RtlE"><i style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">The Haunting of Hill House</i> </a>with a little Edgar Allan Poe too. Shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://audreyniffenegger.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 119px; height: 179px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SutxfabsEII/AAAAAAAABNo/jIhKgWU4gc8/s200/fearful.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398533362819010690" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://audreyniffenegger.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Audrey Niffenegger</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a href="http://bit.ly/2RGkhm"><i style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Her Fearful Symmetry</i></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The </span><span style="font-size:100%;">long-awaited new novel from the author of <i style="">The Time Traveler’s </i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">Wife</i> is a bit of a ghos</span><span style="font-size:100%;">t story, set beside London’s famed <a href="http://www.highgate-cemetery.org/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Highgate Cemetery</span></a>. Moving into a Londo</span><span style="font-size:100%;">n flat they inherit</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ed from their aunt Elspeth, Chicago identical twins Valentina and Julia find aunt Elspeth still hanging about as a medd</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ling ghost. Like <i style="">The Time Traveler’s Wife</i> at its heart this is a romance, albeit an odd one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">A crime novel, for grey, grim November:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p><a href="http://www.stieglarsson.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Stieg Lar</span></a></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bit.ly/1m0oB2"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 117px; height: 171px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8iAcXKEiI/AAAAAAAABNw/leYg4eKSVGY/s200/stieg.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399571869249180194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.stieglarsson.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">sson</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><i style=""><a href="http://bit.ly/1m0oB2"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The Girl Who Played with Fire</span></a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Scandinavian crime fiction is hot. Kenneth Branaugh brought Henning Mankell's </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Wallander books to BBC/PBS recently. Swede Stieg </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:100%;">Larsson’s first thriller, <i style="">The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo</i>, was a critical and a popular success all over the world. </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:100%;">Computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Mikael </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Blomk</span><span style="font-size:100%;">vist are </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:100%;">back, this time in the thick of the action, with Salander accused of the </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:100%;">murder of two journalists about to expose a trafficking business. Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004 just after delivering the manuscripts for three of these novels, so it is doubly sad finishing these books.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><span style="" lang="EN-CA"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bit.ly/Vj9f6"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 116px; height: 174px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8ig5wyu8I/AAAAAAAABN4/DWYmEGo18C4/s200/fallada.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399572426897144770" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;">A war novel for Remembrance Day:<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><span style="" lang="EN-CA"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><span style="" lang="EN-CA"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Fallada"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Hans Fallada</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><i style=""><a href="http://bit.ly/zEook"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Every Man Dies Alone</span></a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><span style=";font-size:100%;color:black;" >Like the Larsson book, this is a posthumous novel, but only in that this is the first time it has been</span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:black;" > published in English, over 60 years after its initial publication in German. It was actually written in Germany dur</span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:black;" >ing the Second World War and published – and was a bestseller – in German in 1947. But no English language publish</span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:black;" >er saw fit to publish until now. An excellent but sad book, about a couple who try to defy the Nazis in their own </span><span style=";font-size:100%;color:black;" >small way.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;">An up and comer:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8mqrRTJII/AAAAAAAABOA/1-iiQUAoG0E/s1600-h/chaon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 105px; height: 161px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8mqrRTJII/AAAAAAAABOA/1-iiQUAoG0E/s200/chaon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399576992852157570" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;font-family:times new roman;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8mqrRTJII/AAAAAAAABOA/1-iiQUAoG0E/s1600-h/chaon.jpg"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"></span></a><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><a href="http://bit.ly/4nVdcL">Dan Chaon</a> </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://bit.ly/fkusU"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-style: italic;">Await Your Reply</span></a><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">Chaon is an American whose first novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">You Remind Me of Me</span>, was excellent. This new one might be even better. Chaon starts with seemingly unrelated characters and slowly brings them together. This technique reminds me a bit of Kate Atkinson and her tightly-wound plots. Here Chaon deftly juggles three intriguing plots about people dropping their old lives and remaking themselves. <span style="font-size:100%;">Ryan drops out of college to live in the woods, Lucy runs off with her high school teacher and Miles searches for his elusive twin brother. Ch</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bit.ly/400ZC1"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 115px; height: 172px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8nCOxqzrI/AAAAAAAABOI/TmBpJzSO0Bc/s200/trof.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399577397520158386" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;">aon brings the three together.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Local Hero:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://bit.ly/400ZC1"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Thomas Trofimuk</span></a> <a href="http://bit.ly/400ZC1"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Waiting for Columbus</span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Edmonton writer had two novels on the scoreboard, one an Alberta novel o</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">f the year, and then he stepped up to the plate and hit this third one out of the park. This is a great read, a combination of a strong, compelling story with interesting characters and beautiful writing. A modern-day man is admitted to a Spanish mental hospital convinced he is Christopher Columbus. But who is he really?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Oh those</span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bit.ly/35pJjX"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 107px; height: 165px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8oC6ADCwI/AAAAAAAABOQ/wbotLc2OV1k/s200/mantel.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399578508634819330" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Tudors!</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><a href="http://bit.ly/1poghn"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Hilary Mantel </span></a> <a href="http://bit.ly/1jbxYO"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Wolf Hall</span></a></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;">He's been dead five centuries, but Henry VIII is a having a moment, with The Tudors on TV, Pope Benedict inviting Anglicans to leave Henry's church and now this superb Tudor-era novel winning the Booker Prize. Mantel focuses on the turbulent years of Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn, telling the story through the eyes of his crafty advisor, Thomas Cromwell. A long read but worth it.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;">Three non-fiction tales:<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125V1K9D15520.5161&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21455592%7E%210&ri=9&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Brunt,+Stephen.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=9"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 115px; height: 171px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8pfqXBb3I/AAAAAAAABOg/MeImNO78vw4/s200/brunt.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399580102164049778" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p><a href="http://bit.ly/2Bh0fN"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Stephen Brunt</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125V1K9D15520.5161&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21455592%7E%210&ri=9&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Brunt,+Stephen.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=9"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><span style=""> </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Gretzky’s</i><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> </span><i style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Tears: <span class="booksubtitle">Hock</span></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span class="booksubtitle">ey, Canada and th</span></i></span></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125V1K9D15520.5161&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21455592%7E%210&ri=9&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Brunt,+Stephen.&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=9"><i style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span class="booksubtitle">e Day Everything Changed</span></i></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Globe and Mail </span>columnist Stephen Brunt stopped by the Library last fall for a reading. He tantalized us with talk of his next book which would focus on the Wayne Gretzky trade. And now here is the book: Gretzky’s Tears<span style=""> </span>- a must-read for Oilers and Gretzky fans and anyone interested in a brilliant look at how our game changed after “The Trade”. Brunt is not only one of Canada’s best sports writers, he’s one of the best writers period.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bit.ly/4lTnDD"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 112px; height: 169px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8pRQxoZsI/AAAAAAAABOY/CjU0oSFPOz4/s200/lost+city.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399579854778164930" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p><a href="http://bit.ly/4lTnDD"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">David Grann</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><span style=""> </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><a href="http://bit.ly/iK4YE"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The Lost City of Z</span></a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">A true story of classic adventure in the jungles of the Amazon with this true story of classic adventure. In 1925 British explorer Percy Fawcett entered the Amazon jungle in search of an ancient civilization and was never seen again. Grann intersperses the story of F</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bit.ly/XTDPM"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 176px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Su8p1bcMiAI/AAAAAAAABOo/UaEWk5vsxGw/s200/forldand.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399580476116338690" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;">awcett with his own search for the truth. Intriguing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;"><a href="http://bit.ly/XTDPM"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Greg Grandin</span></span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://bit.ly/2JaVBV"><i style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Fordlandia</i></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The cliché is true: truth is stranger than fiction. The intriguing true story of iconic businessman Henry Ford’s quixotic attempt to build a utopia in Brazil’s Amazonian jungle. From the 1920s through 1945 Ford tried to remake the rainforest into an outpost of white picket fence America with a rubber plantation as its heart.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=""> </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><br /></p>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-91773481026830827892009-10-16T15:34:00.011-06:002009-10-30T13:38:25.236-06:00Waiting for Columbus<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1D56P31B60660.2401&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21375897%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Waiting+for+Columbus+%3A+%5Ba+novel%5D+%2F&index=PALLTI"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sus3oNPC7NI/AAAAAAAABNA/1IAtdwQB2tA/s200/waiting.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398469742220733650" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.thomastrofimuk.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Thomas Trofimuk</span></a> popped into the Library last night for a reading and a chat about his great new novel, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1D56P31B60660.2401&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21375897%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Waiting+for+Columbus+%3A+%5Ba+novel%5D+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Waiting for Columbus</span></a>. Thomas is a critically-acclaimed Edmonton writer with two well-received novels to his name. His 2002 debut novel, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1D56P31B60660.2401&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21300684%7E%212&ri=6&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Trofimuk,+Thomas,+1958-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=6"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The 52nd Poem</span></a>, won the <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://bit.ly/19amlg">Writers' Guild of Alberta's Georges Bugnet Award</a> for Alberta Novel of the Year as well as the Edmonton Book Prize. His second novel, from 2006, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1D56P31B60660.2401&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21372101%7E%211&ri=4&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Trofimuk,+Thomas,+1958-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=4"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Doubting Yourself to the Bone</span></a>, was a <span style="font-style: italic;">Globe & Mail </span>100 pick. He is also an accomplished poet, one of the founders of the Raving Poets collective.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />And of course, being a successful poet and novelist in Alberta means Thomas also has a full-time day job - working in the salt mines of the Provincial government (No, not literally - I'm pretty sure the government has no salt mines. Thomas works as a Business Analyst for Municipal Affairs). But with his new <span style="font-style: italic;">Columbus</span> book Thomas has turned the dial on his writing career up to 11. The book had big buzz before publication and a major American publisher paid him a sizable advance. Foreign rights have been sold in various countries.<br /><br />What created the buzz was a great story really. Around the library we call them "good reads" - those special books that find the sweet spot between the serious literary work and the popular thriller with the strong narrative that pulls you through. At the reading Thomas noted that with this book he really tried to focus on the story. Clearly he was successful as this is a very readable book with the beautiful language and memorable characters of capital "L" literature.<br /><br />The seed of <span style="font-style: italic;">Columbus</span> had been knocking about Trofimuk's mind for 15 years until recently when he had an epiphany and figured out how to write the story. He pulled off the road (I think he said the Whitemud freeway?), phoned his wife and asked her to copy down his ideas on how he would write the book.<br /><br />The book is a mistaken identity tale which begins with a modern-day man being admitted to a mental hospital in Seville, Spain. The man is convinced he is Christopher Columbus. He tells his story to Consuela, a sympathetic nurse, and we soon see problems with his story (he has a cell phone for example). Meanwhile there is a parallel story of a detective searching for someone in Spain. Momentum builds as we learn who Columbus really is. In the meantime we're treated to a fun character, for Columbus is quite the rogue, with a fondness for women and winer.<br /><br />The Li<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1D56P31B60660.2401&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21302100%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=10&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Codex+632+%3A+the+secret+identity+of+Christopher+Columbus+%3A+a+novel+%2F&index=PALLTI"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 92px; height: 139px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sus3vIYEq1I/AAAAAAAABNI/Xfd-R6T8JK0/s200/codex.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398469861175503698" border="0" /></a>brary has another Columbus-related novel: <i style=""><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125B92782N9H3.2334&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21302100%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Codex+632+%3A+the+secret+identity+of+Christopher+Columbus+%3A+a+novel+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Codex 632</span></a><o:p></o:p></i> by <a href="http://www.joserodriguesdossantos.com/" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" name="Author"><em><span style="font-style: normal;">José Rodrigues dos San</span></em></a><a href="http://www.joserodriguesdossantos.com/" style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" name="Author"><em><span style="font-style: normal;">tos</span></em></a><a name="Author"><em></em></a><em><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;">. </span>This thriller is a late entry in the "it's like <span style="font-style: italic;">The Da Vinci C</span></span></em><em><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;">ode</span>" sweepstakes, for it has a Robert Langdon-ish historian hot on the trail of a improbable conspiracy involving the true identity of Christopher Columbus. Like </span>The Da Vinci Code</em><em><span style="font-style: normal;">, the novel quickly jumps from New York to Jerusalem to Brazil, using clues from Kabbalah and the Templars.<o:p></o:p></span></em> But unlike <span style="font-style: italic;">The Da Vinci Code</span> the author seems to want to get EVERYTHING he knows about Columbus onto the page, leaving the various plots gasping for air.<br /><br />Reading Trofimuk's <span style="font-style: italic;">Waiting for Columbus</span> I was reminded of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bowering"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">George Bowering</span></a>'s postmodern Canadian classic novel, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Burning-Water-George-Bowering/dp/0140242848"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Burning Water</span></a>. The Library's c<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.amazon.ca/Burning-Water-George-Bowering/dp/1554200369/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256931366&sr=8-2"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 95px; height: 147px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sus_J9O7yZI/AAAAAAAABNY/JV0kUeY32N4/s200/burning.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398478018622245266" border="0" /></a>opy is long-gone, so I was happy to see that Vancouver's New Star books brought it back into print. This really is an underrated book. It did win the 1980 Governor General's Award for Fiction but no one seems to have heard of it when I mention it. Maybe it is because it doesn't fit the mold (any mold!) as it is a funny book. Check out the impassioned praise of the book by <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Burning-Water-George-Bowering/dp/1554200369/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256931366&sr=8-2"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Jeff Foss</span></a> in <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Burning-Water-George-Bowering/dp/1554200369/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256931366&sr=8-2"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Books in Canada</span></a>, where he calls it "one of the best Canadian books of the last 50 years or so".<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Burning Water</span> is a novel that re-imagines the 1792 voyage of Captain George Vancouver to the coast of British Columbia. He cheekily invents history, having Vancouver in a love affair with the Spanish explorer Don Juan Francisco la Bodega y Quadra. Have a read when the Library's new copy arrives!<br /></div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-87765388950297150552009-09-11T14:32:00.006-06:002009-09-11T17:37:23.787-06:00Man on Wire<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sqq00Nf6tHI/AAAAAAAABL4/CeVJVWbqegQ/s1600-h/man_on_wire.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 127px; height: 189px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sqq00Nf6tHI/AAAAAAAABL4/CeVJVWbqegQ/s200/man_on_wire.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380311513917207666" border="0" /></a>Eight years on and it still seems unbelievable: two giant towers, there one minute, gone the next. The New York City skyline still seems incomplete these days, even though the Empire State Building has more room to shine. The World Trade Center lives on in memory of course. The best memory is from August 1974, when a young Frenchman, Philippe Petit, walked eight times between the twin towers on a narrow wire.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Petit wrote of his dazzling feat in his 2002 book, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=R25DJ07132453.3084&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%2189885%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=To+reach+the+clouds+%3A+my+high+wire+walk+between+the+Twin+Towers+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">To </span></a><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=R25DJ07132453.3084&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%2189885%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=To+reach+the+clouds+%3A+my+high+wire+walk+between+the+Twin+Towers+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers</span></a>. The 2008 documentary, <a style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12I27085L0796.3103&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21338079%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Man+on+wire.&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Man on Wire</span></a>, is based on Petit's book. This is one of the rare cases when the film is better than the book in my opinion. British director James Marsh said he thought of his film as a "heist movie". It does feel like a heist film, focusing on the preparations for the walk -Petit readying himself with supporters in France, casing the towers and so on. There is no footage of the walk itself (unthinkable in these Youtube days!) but plenty of photographs. And the film is also a love letter to the World Trade Center, an homage.<br /><br />Canadian writer <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Steven Galloway</span>, of <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The Cellist of Sarajevo</span> fame, centred his 2003 novel, Ascension, on a wire walker who walks between the twin towers in 1976. But his fictional walker is not a young Frenchman. He is Salvo Ursari, a 66 year-old Roma man. And his walk doesn't end as well as Petit's shall we say (we know this in chapter one - not a spoiler!).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125270Q58BJ96.3125&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%2154168%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=American+ground%2C+unbuilding+the+World+Trade+Center+%2F&index=PALLTI"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SqrU5_NQkdI/AAAAAAAABMA/UJAw9rbgk0M/s200/unbuilding.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380346797532156370" border="0" /></a><br />Since 9/11 there have been the endless wrangles about how to both remember the towers and the people who died there, as well as how to replace the buildings. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/langew/wlbio.htm"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">William Langewiesche</span></a> wrote about the immediate clearing up of the site ("unbuilding") in <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The Atlantic</span></a> magazine, later published as his book <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125270Q58BJ96.3125&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%2154168%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=American+ground%2C+unbuilding+the+World+Trade+Center+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">American Ground: Unbuilding the Word Trade Center</span></a>. <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Philip Nobel</span> wrote of the wrangles in <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125270Q58BJ96.3125&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21174023%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Sixteen+acres+%3A+architecture+and+the+outrageous+struggle+for+the+future+of+Ground+Zero+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Sixteen Acres: Architect</span></a><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125270Q58BJ96.3125&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21174023%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Sixteen+acres+%3A+architecture+and+the+outrageous+struggle+for+the+future+of+Ground+Zero+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">ure and the Outrageous Struggle for the Future of Ground Zero</span></a> (2005). The starchitect <a href="http://www.daniel-libeskind.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Daniel Libeskind</span></a>, selected to do a master plan for Ground Zero, talks a bit about the aesthetic and other <em></em>struggles in his 2004 memoir, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125270Q58BJ96.3125&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21330560%7E%216&ri=6&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=World+Trade+Center+%28New+York,+N.Y.%29&index=.SW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=6"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture</span></a>.<br /><br />Of course the reverberations of 9/11 go way beyond the towers. Just this summer the "Western Hemisphere Tra<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sqra_or-gDI/AAAAAAAABMI/GDLmo2npP78/s1600-h/border+gons.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 136px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/Sqra_or-gDI/AAAAAAAABMI/GDLmo2npP78/s200/border+gons.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380353491635961906" border="0" /></a>vel Initiative" came into effect, forcing everyone crossing the US-Canada border to have a passport. This "thickening" of the formerly "undefended border" between friends kind of means the terrorists won, doesn't it? <a href="http://www.thehighesttide.com/index.htm"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Jim Lynch</span></a> uses the politics, both personal, local and cross-border, of what he calls the "nonchalant border" between BC and Washington State as the setting for his excellent new novel, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=Q252C1091O312.3145&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21369209%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Border+songs+%3A+%5Ba+novel%5D+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Border Songs</span></a>. Small-town oddball Brandon Vanderkool unexpectedly finds his calling when he joins the U.S. Border Patrol and is soon at the centre of an uptick in pot smuggling and human trafficking. Mike Doherty in the <a href="http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/afterword/archive/2009/07/04/book-review-border-songs-by-jim-lynch.aspx"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">National Post</span></a> called the novel "required reading" and noted that Seattle-area writer Lynch "gets Canada right."<br /></div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-90723862966135284232009-09-03T15:50:00.011-06:002012-08-16T17:17:44.957-06:00The Dominion of Wyley McFadden<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex3441" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377370835428497778" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SqBCSMdC2XI/AAAAAAAABLQ/DQdavUOxCT0/s200/rat.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 152px;" /></a>"You can't ignore the rat. Kill him." So goes the 1950s rat eradication poster from the Alberta Department of Health (available on a <a href="https://sales.ccs.alberta.ca/paa/store/select.aspx?item=199" style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">t-shirt</a><span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;"> </span>from the <span style="color: #3333ff; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Provincial </span><a href="https://sales.ccs.alberta.ca/paa/store/select.aspx?item=199"><span style="color: #3333ff; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Archives of Alberta</span> shop</a>!). The anti-rat campaign worked, making Alberta the only rat-free jurisdiction in Canada. Or perhaps the world? Recently there has been <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/09/01/calgary-rat-free.html" style="color: #cc33cc;">talk</a>, as there is periodically, that rats were found here or there. They're usually pet rats (not allowed in Alberta) that have made an unsuccessful break for freedom. Or muskrats or "<a href="http://content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Hall/Business+Units/Parks/Parks+Management/Pest+Management/Common+Pests/Moles+Pocket+Gophers.htm">pocket gophers</a>" misidentified as rats.</div>
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The most recent rat scare even got a comment from Premier Ed Stelmach, who otherwise has been <a href="http://daveberta.blogspot.com/2009/08/still-missing-premier-ed-stelmach.html">pretty quiet </a>this summer: "You won’t have any rat feces in the food that we produce ... I have great confidence in our pest control people ... they’ll get every rat that there is in the province.” I'm sure the Premier doesn't mean to imply that the food everyone else produces has rat feces in it. Pretty sure.</div>
Meanwhile next door in Saskatchewan there is news of a rat infestation in Swift Current. I'm sure Saskatchewanians enjoyed the reports that focused on 'what does this mean for rat-free Alberta"', as in the <span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">CBC</span> report: <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/08/25/calgary-alberta-rat-patrol-swift-current.html">"Swift Current rat problem puts Alberta on alert"</a> (okay, we've got rats, but what about our rat-free neighbours?)<br />
<a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12525984JA3E0.1403&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21158209%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=The+dominion+of+Wyley+McFadden.&index=PALLTI" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377387695994661378" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SqBRnm9RagI/AAAAAAAABLY/zn-bSO8hOtE/s200/wyley.png" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 123px;" /></a><br />
Toronto writer <span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">Scott Gardiner</span> focused on this inherent inter-provincial rivalry, or perhaps Alberta smugness, regarding rats in his acclaimed 2000 novel, <a href="http://bit.ly/NJamiV" style="color: #009900;" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Dominion of Wyley McFadden</span></a>. Toronto "urban trapper" Wyley McFadden sets out to "redress geo-zoological discrimination" by introducing a truck full of Toronto rats into Alberta. Complicating his mission is the female hitchhiker he picks up in Wawa, Ontario. An eccentric but funny road novel, full of authentic Cancon.<br />
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Apparently Gardiner was inspired to write the novel by a summer working the Alberta rigs, where he was teased mercilessly for his Toronto-ness. And that to me is the flip side to the cheery talk of a rat-free Alberta. There is something very Fortress Alberta about patrolling the border, looking to kill invaders. Shades of building a firewall or "Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark." Or look further back in Alberta histo<a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12525984JA3E0.1403&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21195340%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Maus+%3A+a+survivor%27s+tale+%3A+my+father+bleeds+history+%2F&index=PALLTI" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379860282891039554" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SqkabG7z80I/AAAAAAAABLw/VRWvLnQFO7w/s200/maus.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 181px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 129px;" /></a>ry, in the darker periods when some Albertans dabbled in anti-semitism, or what the late <span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">Howard Palmer</span> called "nativism" in his 1982 book <a href="http://bit.ly/P1x5UX" target="_blank"><span style="color: #009900; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Patterns of Prejudice: A History of </span></a><a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=I252565Y124C1.1227&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%2116450%7E%213&ri=2&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Palmer,+Howard,+1946-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=2"><span style="color: #009900; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Nativism in Alberta</span>.</a> Keep them foreigners out! I'm reminded of the classic graphic novel about the Holocaust, <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://stalbert.bibliocommons.com/item/show/347511031_maus" style="color: #009900;" target="_blank">Maus: A Survivor's Tale</a>, </span>in which <span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">Art Spiegelman</span> depicts the Nazis as cats, attempting to exterminate the Jews, depicted as mice or rats. Just yesterday I saw the new <span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">Tarantino</span> WWII film, <a href="http://bit.ly/PoRkhJ" style="color: #cc33cc;" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Inglourious Basterds</span></a> and sure enough there in scene one is a Nazi going on and on about Jews as rats.<br />
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I don't mean to denigrate the fine work of the Alberta rat patrol of course! I'm as pleased (and smug) as the next Albertan to live in a rat-free zone. Just don't be surprised if your cousin in Moncton rolls his eyes.<br />
<a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12525984JA3E0.1403&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21123379%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=5&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Rats+%3A+observations+on+the+history+and+habitat+of+the+city%27s+most+unwanted+inhabitants+%2F&index=PALLTI" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379734069960486754" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SqinojIPr2I/AAAAAAAABLg/6IqMuYBcMTs/s200/index.aspx.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 132px;" /></a><br />
For a first rate natural history of rats, in this case in New York City, pick up <span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">Rober</span><span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">t Sullivan</span>'s excellent 2004 book <a href="http://stalbert.bibliocommons.com/item/show/318669031_rats" style="color: #009900;" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants</span></a>. Sullivan poked around garbage-strewn alleys in Manhattan to learn more about this great American success story.<br />
*****</div>
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<b><span style="color: red;">Update: August 2012.</span></b> An outbreak of rats in <a href="http://bit.ly/Pskzyg" target="_blank">Medicine Hat, Alberta</a> once again threatens Alberta's reputation as a rat-free province! Rats in the Hat!</div>
Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36851398.post-61182420409997818222009-02-06T10:14:00.008-07:002009-02-07T09:38:22.913-07:00Ladykiller<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=123F024692QV6.3391&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21182807%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Ladykiller+%3A+stories+%2F&index=PALLTI"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 133px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IknPfSHrHug/SYzVXV44-fI/AAAAAAAABD0/8K6-9j0OgXA/s200/LadykillerGGsmall.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299845458497698290" border="0" /></a>It is always interesting meeting an author off the page and in the flesh. I had to be dragged to a reading last night over at the U of A but as always happens I'm glad I went. Three writers were reading, two that teach at the university: <a href="http://logogryph.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Thomas Wharton</span></a> and <a href="http://www.freehand-books.com/authors/marina-endicott.html"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Marina Endicott</span></a> and one from the U of C: <a href="http://charlottegill.com/index.htm"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Charlotte Gill</span></a>. I was suprised by Gill as her Governor-General's Award-nominated book of stories, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12339SAG20716.3119&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21182807%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Ladykiller+%3A+stories+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Ladykiller</span></a>, is full of nasty and unlikeable folk. I had an impression in my mind of someone tough, punkish, maybe goth-y or grunge-y. In fact Gill was a slim, polished, fashionable woman wearing killer boots. So I recalibrated my perceptions more along the lines of Kitsilano-yoga-latte person. But my attempt to stereotype her was dashed again when the moderator noted that Gill is currently working on a non-fiction book about tree-planting, based on her many years' experience as a tree planter! And tree planting may take all kinds, but Kitsilano-yoga-latte people aren't the type one would normally associate with the trade. You can read a piece about tree planting on Gill's website <a href="http://charlottegill.com/2007/10/more-from-vancouver-review.html"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">here</span></a>. Gill is currently at the U of C as <a href="http://www.ucalgary.ca/markinflanagan/charlotte_gill"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Writer in Residence</span></a>.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gill read a bit from <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Ladykiller</span>, the title story I think. Endicott read a bit from a work in progress, a novel she is working on about the Belle Auroras, a sister-trio vaudeville act touring Alberta and Montana in 1909. It sounds quite different than her Giller-nominated novel, <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12339SAG20716.3119&profile=sapl-ext&uri=link=3100007%7E%21325180%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1&source=%7E%21stalbert&term=Good+to+a+fault+%3A+%5Ba+novel%5D+%2F&index=PALLTI"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Good to a Fault</span></a>, and should be interesting. [*** Save the date: <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Marina Endicott</span> will visit St. Albert Library on<span style="font-weight: bold;"> March 8th, 2pm!</span>] Wharton read a delightful bit from his book <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">The Logogryph</span>. All three were witty and wise during questions from the audience. And in the audience was U of A's Writer in Residence, <a href="http://www.lynncoady.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Lynn Coady</span></a> (author of the excellent <a href="http://hip.sapl.ab.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12N3966A066B7.3128&profile=sapl-ext&source=%7E%21stalbert&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001%7E%21355184%7E%210&ri=4&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Coady,+Lynn,+1970-&index=PZAUTH&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=4"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Mean Boy</span></a>, among others).<br /></div>Libarbarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05900051908307943905noreply@blogger.com0