Random Things

First, I went to my gorgeous friend’s gorgeous wedding on Vancouver Island which is a gorgeous place and led me to ponder what books I have read set in British Columbia. And with the exception of Susan Juby I think I am blanking.  But, at the very least, the Alice, I Think  series

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I was greatly saddened to hear about the passing of Elizabeth Peters who has the best quotes in the history of the world ---

“No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.” 

“I disapprove of matrimony as a matter of principle.... Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself! "

“When one is striding bravely into the future one cannot watch one's footing. ”

I love Amelia Peabody and I LOVE Elizabeth Peters

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Secondly, here is an interview with the lovely mystery maven and all-time favourite of mine, Martha Grimes --- a nice prelude to the newJURY NOVEL WE GET NEXT YEAR!

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Over the weekend, I watched 4.5 seasons of Doc Martin  ( which I discovered care of Tessa Afshar's blog ) which is just delicious and wonderful and tickles my funny bone and makes me ache with its adorably gruff, rough-around-the-edges romance.   To add, the series is set in gorgeous Cornwall with a sea-side view to die for.

I love the slow-burning romance between Doc Martin and Louisa, the local primary school teacher who steals his heart at first sight. Not unlike House ( but with more heart, indubitably), Martin struggles with social proprieties and etiquette. His bedside manner is appalling and his treatment of his neighbours and friends leaves a lot to be desire. But, oh! How he loves Louisa.  If you watch, you will hear that he says her name in a softer cadence than any other name---or line ---for that matter. And his odd, crinkly and harsh physiognomy lightens when she is nearby .

It is really quite endearing and but one circle of many, many outlining rings which take us through perplexity, surges of eccentricity, medical cases and the lovely, lofty little wonders of small village life.

Books in the NEWS!

Hi Friends!


First off, the lovely and talented Sarah Loudin Thomas signed a contract ---a three book contract at that--- with Bethany House and I cannot WAIT to read her work. I am kinda a fan already.  Her synopses read highly symbolic; perhaps with a touch of magic realism and she is certain to prove a fresh voice in the realm of Christian fiction.

Secondly, one of my most anticipated books this year Burning Sky by delightful author Lori Benton is available for a two-chapter sneakpeek through Waterbrook/Multnomah.

So, there you have it. Mondays are not so bad after all.


Oh, and in case you are a rabid Vienna Prelude fan like myself and wanna weigh in on casting/location decisions for the movie all the fans should make (what's that site? the one where they raised money for Veronica Mars) well you are welcome to join the new Pinterest board I created. la la la la la.
Elisa and Murphy. Sigh.

World's Worst Book Proposals

I am sure they are not the worst.... there are probably others out there... but these are PRETTY bad!


READ 

Congratulations Lynn Austin

For the 8th (8th!!!) time, Lynn Austin won the Christy Award for Best Historical novel.  Far and away she has won more Christys than any other author and deservedly so: she is the best in the business.

Read my review of the award-winning Wonderland Creek


Read the full list of Christy Award winnners here 

Sad Day in Bookland

When I was a kid and in my teen years I loved going to Toronto.  This small town Orillia girl always had a hankering for the big bustle of the city and it was inevitable I would eventually move here.  My minister father would sometimes have to come to Toronto to visit ill parishioners at one of the city's major hospitals.  I would tag a long and sometimes would find hours to myself betwixt the shelves of the World's Biggest Bookstore.  I loved it.  As a book lover who had just started collecting books, I was in heaven and remember buying my very first copy of "Tender is the Night" and "Little Women" from its fiction section.   I was at the point where I was no longer re-signing favourites out from the library; I was starting to collect.

Reading about X-Wing pilots on a  WBB visit 2 summers ago

Indubitably, the first thing I did when I started as a student at the University of Toronto was apply for a job there.  For 4.5 years as I completed my degree, I spent my after school hours working ( if you can call it that).  To work there you needed to know about books, be passionate about books, have diverse interests and tastes: interests and tastes I honed and developed spending hours between the bookshelves and speaking on a myriad of subjects with regulars and tourists, people from all over the world.

I also met some of my closest friends there ( including KAT twitter handle:@bitwhizzle) : students like me working part time who loved books like a disease.  They are some of my best friends to this day......

This place is more than just bricks and mortar; this place is part of my spirit, part of who I am.....

As we draw closer towards its inevitable demise, I will continue to traipse down memory lane.  This place built me as a reader and that is the most important thing to a biblophile.....

ORILLIAN books in the NEWS

While I have lived in Toronto for over a decade,  my hometown is Orillia, ON. where my parents still live.

Excitingly, a young up-and-coming author with Harper Collins Canada is also from Orillia.  I remember meeting Matt in passing and I wish him all of the greatest success on his new book.

I plan to read The Carpenter when my review schedule dies down a little bit and will let you all know if, indeed, it elicits the comparison to Mystic River, so boasted by the enthusiastic editor.

GO ORILLIA!  ...and fiction that shows apt shadier sides of Leacock's Sunshine City.

Read about The Carpenter in The National Post
Purchase on Amazon
Take a closer look at the Harper Collins Canada page

BOOKS in the NEWS!

-Remember how much I love Catherine Webb? Yah, we all do. Anyhow, I found this lovely podcast interview of her answering questions of adorable students. I had never heard her speak before (although I, of course, read her often and follow her well-written blog

-To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town set in the fictional Mariposa (a stand-in for my hometown of Orillia), the CBC made a really boring tv movie filmed in Gravenhurst. I watched about 23 minutes. Leacock was rather like Canada's Mark Twain in ways. Shame that this had to happen to him.

-I love the Classic Trash series at The Awl. I especially liked this write-up of that Golden Book of WTF-ery, The Thorn Birds: made into an equally creepy TV movie starring Richard Chamberlain (who spends more time eye-snogging with Christopher Plummer than actually acting on his forbidden lust for Rachel Ward).  Anyways, funny-as-heck book written in a funny-as-heck article.

BOOKS in the NEWS!

the BBC Sherlock boosts Arthur Conan Doyle book sales
Vintage Toronto Ad for the Toronto Telegram
Fans await no-show "Poe Toaster" ---nevermore....
The Telegraph does a "My Week" segment with our beloved Anthony Horowitz

BOOKS in the NEWS!

They're making Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town into a film starring Gordon Pinsent and Eric Peterson.  Sunshine Sketches is inspired by my hometown, Orillia, by Orillia's favourite son, Stephen Leacock. This book is very close to my heart due to its Orillia connections!

The World Fantasy Convention will be here in Toronto in 2012 and you can see Scott Lynch!  (and maybe friggin' Republic of Thieves will have been released by then; but I doubt it)

Adorable girl strives to make Horatio Lyle popular internationally on youtube 

Torontonians: 'tis fall -- and you know what that means! IFOA! 

At IFOA this Fall Rachel Recommends:

IAN RANKIN!!!!!

Ian Rankin’s first Rebus novel was published in 1987, and the Rebus series is now translated into 22 languages and are bestsellers on several continents. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards, winner of the Edgar Award for Resurrection Men and recently received the Order of the British Empire for services to literature. Rankin presents The Impossible Dead, the second novel in the Malcolm Fox series, in which a major inquiry into a neighboring police force leaves Fox and his colleagues unsure of territory, protocol or who they can trust.

...and I guess other people, like:

Will Ferguson

Published in 33 countries and 26 languages, Will Ferguson’s debut novel, Happiness, won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. He also co-wrote the humour book How to Be a Canadian, which won the CBA Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year. In Canadian Pie, Ferguson shares stories from his travels to Yukon in search of gold, gives lessons of a mini-bar ninja and discusses his misadventures working on the Vancouver Olympics Closing Ceremonies.

Charles Foran

Charles Foran is the author of eight books, including four novels and the essay collectionJoin the Revolution, Comrade. He also writes regularly for magazines and newspapers in Canada and abroad, and is a contributing reviewer for theGlobe and Mail. Foran presents his Charles Taylor Prize-winning work, Mordecai: The Life, a biography of one of Canada's most beloved and successful writers, Mordecai Richler.

Frances Itani

Frances Itani is the author of 14 books, includingDeafening, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Caribbean and Canada) and Remembering the Bones, which was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She has taught creative writing for many years and her reviews, stories and articles have been widely published. She is also a Member of the Order of Canada. Itani’s Requiem tells the story of a recently widowed man who embarks on an unforgettable journey that encompasses art and music, love and hope

Wayne Johnston

Wayne Johnston was born and raised in Newfoundland. Once a reporter for the St. John's Daily News, Johnston eventually earned an MA in Creative Writing. His bestselling novels include The Custodian of Paradise, The Navigator of New York and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. He is also the author of the bestselling memoir, Baltimore's Mansion, winner of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. Taking place in St. John’s, Princeton and North Carolina at the end of the 19th century, Johnston’s A World Elsewhere, is a sweeping tale that questions the loyalties of friends, family and the heart.

Jane Urquhart

Jane Urquhart is the internationally acclaimed author of six previous novels, a collection of short fiction, three books of poetry and a short biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery. She has received the Marian Engel Award and the Harbourfront Festival Prize, and is a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Urquhart presents Sanctuary Line, which weaves elements from 19th century Ireland and Ontario to create a gradually unfolding story of events that come to irrevocably alter the future of one family.

BOOKS in the NEWS!

• Michael Crummey
• Henning Mankell
• Anthony Horowitz reads from the House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes novel
• Sarah Addison Allen's charming ode to the spell of books
• Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo, faces digital reckoning
• obsessed "Windies" pay homage to their favourite novel with a trip to Atlanta
• the Quill and Quire discusses the role publishing plays at the polls in the upcoming Canadian election ( especially in light of tonight's televised debates)
• My favourite Book of the Bible is filmed (starring 80s and 90s contemporary Christian music video star, Carman, as Boaz)
• can it be worse than the technicolour 1960s treatment?
• More people that recognize Kate Griffin's ( it's really Catherine Webb: she of the 'Horatio Lyle' novels ) brilliance
• Have you friended a fictional facebook friend yet? Try Melrose Plant or Sydney Carton

SCOTT LYNCH!

Since the exciting news of A Dance with Dragons was released and readers itching for the latest George R R Martin feel that their 6 years of book purgatory is over, I thought I would express my similar enthusiasm at the prospective publication date by the latest of a favourite author.

Dear Scott Lynch,

You have no idea how much your books fill my heart and head with glee. No idea.

I LOVE the Lies of Locke Lamora and I LOVE Red Seas Under Red Skies and I think you have a cuttingly winsome sense of humour and a fully-developed magical realm and characters so dimensional you need 3D glasses just to scope them in their tantalizing complexity.

Moreover, you perfectly render the blood and passion and intrigue of a land filled with the periphery of war. As sweet as your prose is, you can turn over a dark leaf and unleash a depth of terror and suspense rarely found in your genre.

I cannot stop talking about the Lies of Locke Lamora. So much so, I think some people buy it just to shut me up ( but then they read and love it ).


The problem is, Scott Lynch, that I JUST CANNOT WAIT for the Republic of Thieves. I can’t. I’ve tried. I’m like one of those mopey George RR Martin fans who, to no avail, refreshes their browser so that the unnamed release date appears Banquo-like in the background.


I cannot wait. I can’t. My fingertips are twitching.

You left us in a rather perplexing place. The fates of Jean Tannen and glorious Locke hang heavily in the air. I am so excited.


Scott Lynch, you are a magnificent wordsmith and you paint a canvas that I cannot wait to jump into again.

I want to return to your kaleidoscope-coloured world and read your gritty, visceral dialogue and have the ends of my eyelids stand on end in scintillating, book-drunk glee.


I have had it on pre-order for ages and everytime I get a note from amazon informing me that the date has changed; something within my reader’s heart shrivels and dies. I know there's not a lot you can do about this and Orion has confirmed November. I just wanted to let you know that as excited as readers are about the Martin, so this reader is excited about the return of her beloved Locke....


Cordially,
Rachel

BOOKS in the NEWS!

BOOKS in the NEWS:

Canadians Read ( and worry... and read)

And you thought you had read ALL of Dashiell Hammett!!

Sherlock: Anthony Horowitz-style

Real life mystery and macabre: the case of the missing cognac-drinking Poe grave visitor

BOOKS in the NEWS!

Some books in the news:

EXTRA EXTRA!

The First (Ever) Mystery Novel -- and not Wilkie Collins (!??!)

Why, yes!!! Villette outshines Jane Eyre ( it always did so in my heart)

For the Love of Geekery! --David Tennant takes a turn as Benedick

He makes Christians look cool ( seriously... he does! he always does!): Eric Metaxas talks about his Bonhoeffer biography

Just in case you haven't been talking about Huck Finn this week or have been living in a vaccuum