Ariel Gordon, Winnipeg-based writer and editor, has posted a very thoughtful review of Clare Clark’s THE NATURE OF MONSTERS on her blog The Jane Day Reader:
LEAF through the first dozen pages of Londoner Clare Clark’s richly disturbing second novel, and the following conclusions are inevitable.
First, that the former historian has a dark but orderly brain.
Second, that she is utterly unafraid.
The review originally appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press on Sunday.
Click here for the full review
PS - Clare is reading at the Booked! Festival in Toronto on Sunday June 10th at 12pm in the Speigeltent located at Harbourfront with Gil Adamson, author of THE OUTLANDER (Anansi Press). It would be great to see you there! : )
Biologist Dr. Marlene Zuk, the author of RIDDLED WITH LIFE, was interviewed by Bob McDonald on CBC Radio One’s Quirks and Quarks on Saturday!
It’s a fabulous discussion, but be warned, there is a lot of talk of insect sex and weird parasites. Ewww....!
The contest is now OPEN!
J.K. Rowling and the Moonlight Signing
Click here to enter for a chance to win tickets to the J.K. Rowling and the Moonlight Signing event.
Et pour now amis francais, voici le formulaire d’inscription pour le concours, Séance de signature au clair de lune avec J.K. Rowling.
One lucky Canadian fan, and their parent or legal guardian, will win:
- 4 night, 5 day trip for 2 people (one winner age 8-18 and one adult) to London, England.
- Return economy airfare.
- 4 nights accommodation (double occupancy) in a hotel located in London.
- Airport and hotel transfers in London.
- Passes to J.K. Rowling and the Moonlight Signing event (July 20).
The contest runs from May 24 to July 2, 2007. The Prize will be drawn on July 3, 2007.
Contest buttons are available for you to use on your site or blog. (Both in English and en francais.) Click here to get the J.K. Rowling and the Moonlight Signing buttons.
Best of luck to everyone who enters!
Raincoast Books and Bloomsbury Publishing are delighted to announce
J.K. Rowling and the Moonlight Signing
To celebrate the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on July 21, 2007, J.K. Rowling will be signing the night away at the Natural History Museum in London. One Canadian fan, and their parent or legal guardian, will win a chance to be there.
Raincoast Books and Bloomsbury Plc announced today an online contest open to Canadian fans age 8-18 to win a trip to London to attend the J.K. Rowling and the Moonlight Signing event.
1,700 fans will have the opportunity to meet J.K. Rowling and have their book signed at the Natural History Museum including the lucky Canadian winner and their parent or legal guardian. The first 500 fans will be randomly selected to attend the midnight reading. The subsequent signing is expected to last until dawn. Every ticket holder will receive a free book from Bloomsbury Publishing.
Ten years after the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the launch of the final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, returns to where it all began: with a book, the author and her readers.
The Canadian online contest begins at 9:00AM Pacific Time, May 24, 2007 and will close at 5:00PM Pacific Time on July 2, 2007.
To enter and for full contest details please go to: www.raincoast.com/harrypotter/
The winner will be announced on July 3, 2007.
On the Tyee Books website, Sam Macklin has taken a look at some of the new, lovingly packaged collections of classic comic strips from Fantagraphics and Drawn and Quarterly. Sam reviews PEANUTS VOLUME 6, KRAZY & IGNATZ 1937-1938, POPEYE VOLUME 1, WALT AND SKEEZIX: 1921 & 1922 and MOOMIN BOOK ONE:
All of these works share a vague mood that could be described as “adorable melancholy,” something that seems like a fading echo from a gentler and (in some ways) more tolerant age.
The New York Times took its own unique look at classic comic strip reprints with D & Q cartoonist Joe Matt back in January and, needless to say, all these books are all great. They’re beautiful editions for collectors that respect the craft of creators, but they’re also wonderful introductions to these classics for a new generation of readers. I know everyone at Raincoast is looking forward to the POGO collection that Fantagraphics are publishing in September.
Click here for The Tyee Books article on ‘Adorable Melancholy’
Cally Blackman’s gorgeous 100 YEARS OF FASHION ILLUSTRATION, published by super-cool British publisher Laurence King, is featured on the Drawn blog today:
Loaded with images spanning a century of fashion design, the book is not only a document of the evolution of culture and fashion. It also serves as a visual timeline of illustration techniques, materials, and styles wherein the forms of each successive decade seem to be a reaction to the one that preceded it.... Though if aliens found the book they’d surely be convinced that our planet was populated entirely by thin, elegant, well-dressed women, and two or three dorky-looking guys with really neat haircuts.
And fashionistas, keep an eye out for Laurence King’s book on contemporary footwear design NEW SHOES by Sue Huey and Rebecca Proctor, published in June.
Click here for Drawn’s review of 100 YEARS OF FASHION ILLUSTRATION
Eclectic Closet has posted an excellent review of Clare Clark’s THE NATURE OF MONSTERS:
Set in early 18th-century London, Clare Clark’s The Nature of Monsters is a masterful tale of gothic suspense… In an age of growing intolerance, Clark’s novel will leave readers wondering what methods we use to create monsters today. What we perpetuate in the name of science now has far greater potential to inflict damage on both our species and the world around us. Greater knowledge does not naturally lead to increased compassion. Readers will quickly appreciate that the worst monsters are hidden in plain sight...
Click here for Eclectic Closet’s review of THE NATURE OF MONSTERS
UPDATE Curled Up With A Good Book have also posted a stellar review of THE NATURE OF MONSTERS:
“In this acute study of human nature, pride and greed, Clark once again mines the underbelly of London for her treasure: innocence, men and monsters.”
Stephanie Dickison, Toronto journalist, dedicated researcher, tester, taster, and prolific blogger reviews Brian Tracy’s essential EAT THAT FROG (now revised and updated) on her consumer advice blog THE KNACK:
In this age of getting our information on the net and receiving a ton of emails that can seemingly demand our immediate attention, Tracy’s voice was one of utter calm and soothing tones.
I really needed the reminders and will make sure to revisit them the next time I open my email to over 200 messages or have 4 pieces due on the same day… And now that I have followed his 21 ways (almost all of them… it’ll take awhile to get back in the habit) to get more done in less time, I am off to mail this book to my friend and write notes of comfort to the others.
(Note to self: must order a copy of this book....)
Click here for The Knack’s Review of EAT THAT FROG
Recent Books by Brian Tracy:
Time Power
(NB the paperback edition of Time Power is available!)
Nathan Sellyn has once again been shortlisted for prestigious prize for Indigenous Beasts: this time it’s the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, which recognizes the best first English-language collection of short fiction by a Canadian author. The winner receives $10,000 and there are also two prizes of $500. The Writers’ Union of Canada will announce the winner in Vancouver on June 2 at their AGM.
Nathan was also nominated for the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in the Canada and Caribbean region. Readers everywhere agree: Nathan’s a pretty good writer!
Click here for the Indigenous Beasts podcast and more fun facts about Nathan.
Harcourt have posted an interesting interview with Clare Clark, historian and author of the wonderfully visceral London novels THE GREAT STINK and the forthcoming THE NATURE OF MONSTERS, on their website:
my aim has never been to specifically expose London’s underbelly; although, I suppose that in The Great Stink there is a great deal of it. Instead, what has always interested me as a historian and novelist is the daily minutiae of lives lived in places that are familiar to us but in a style and context that it is difficult for us to understand. The dirt and the smell of historical London were habitual inconveniences that its occupants took for granted; tolerance of squalor was ingrained which explains why, in the main, life was raucous and violent by our standards. If we are to get under the skin of a period, it is my view that we need to appreciate the context. If we, as modern human beings, find it difficult to behave well, how much more difficult was it for someone in the eighteenth century for whom life was cheap and filth a daily hazard? Against so dark and brutal a background any kind of goodness and kindness seems to me to shine with startling brightness.
THE NATURE OF MONSTERS is available May 19th and Clare will be attending the BOOKED! festival in Toronto on June 10th.
Click here for the full Clare Clark interview
Click here for THE NATURE OF MONSTERS mini-site
Click here for So Misguided’s review of THE GREAT STINK and THE NATURE OF MONSTERS
UPDATE: Click here for a neat BBC Radio 4 interview with Clare! (AUDIO)
Tom McCarthy, author of REMAINDER and the forthcoming MEN IN SPACE, selects his Top 10 European Modernists today in The Guardian:
“From time to time, Western literature undergoes an upheaval so momentous that its entire landscape is transfigured. The old order falls away, or rather is devoured and transformed by its own offspring, and the tremors carry on for decades, even centuries, with fault lines spreading out in all directions. Modernism is not a movement, nor even a way of thinking, but an event: an event with which any serious writer has, in some way or another, to engage, and to which they should respond."
Now, one of the problems of attending the Raincoast Sales Conference last month in Vancouver was that pretty much all of April disappeared without a trace, so when the excellent Hesperus Press launched their new blog, I completely missed it. Fortunately, Mark at Ready Steady Blog pointed me in the right direction by posting about an splendid rant by Hesperus Press’ Katya Aplin last week:
I simply do not understand how a tiny company, as we and some notable others are, can say ‘what the hell: this is a damned sight more interesting, exciting, than Dan Brown, and if we love it others will’ and sell enough copies to keep itself in tea and biscuits, and other publishers cannot… I honestly don’t believe that our society has ‘dumbed down’. I think we as an industry need to provide the range to allow readers to make their own decisions, for god’s sake let someone choose the author with the funny name. And the media need to expand their attentions to more than the books with the largest marketing department behind them. That said, we do a nice line in badges, if anybody wants.
It makes me want to go out and buy some translated fiction by some guy with one vowel in his name!
AND if you are wondering why I chose the cover of FATAL EGGS by Mikhail Bulgakov, as opposed to one of Hesperus’ more recent titles, not only is the book awesome, but The Elegant Variation Blog decided to post about Bulgakov this morning so it seemed appropriate. AND I like the cover - frogs with red eyes ROCK.
Click here to read Katya Aplin’s full post
Click here to read The Elegant Variation on Mikhail Bulgakov
You have 24 days left to submit your Pauline T-shirt contest design...
The Pauline contest is nearly over and so is your chance to win free T-shirts for you and your friends. It’s quick and easy to do. If you’re between the age of 8 and 16, visit http://raincoast.com/paulinebtw/ for more details and let your creative side take over!
Contest ends May 31, 2007.
About Pauline, btw Book 1:
“Ravel’s touch is light but spot on” (Susan Perren, The Globe and Mail)
A book that I’ve been pressing into the hands of my friends who don’t like fiction is John Ghazvinian’s compelling UNTAPPED: THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA’S OIL. Ghazvinian traipsed across Africa interviewing just about everyone he met, warlords, missionaries, oil executives, and cab drivers, and discussed (in alarming detail) an industry that has been a decidedly mixed blessing for the continent.
UNTAPPED is packed with anecdotes and fascinating detail, and as Salon put it so succinctly at the weekend, Ghazvinian “delivers an account that would be wildly entertaining if the story he was telling wasn’t so full of heartbreaking poverty, venality, corruption and violence.”
Basically it’s brilliant, but don’t just take my word for it - Here are some online resources to help you make up your own mind:
REVIEWS:
ONLINE EXCERPTS:
INTERVIEWS:
The Boston Globe (PRINT)
Charlottesville Podcasting Network (PODCAST)
The Onion A.V. Club has just posted an terrific indepth interview with King-Cat Classix cartoonist John Porcellino:
There’s a Zen-like serenity to John Porcellino’s self-published King-Cat Comics—but in 1989, you never would have seen it coming. When Porcellino founded the Xeroxed zine 18 years ago, he was an Illinois college kid bursting with self-doubt, anger, and punk-fueled sarcasm, all of which spilled onto the pages of King-Cat. It’s almost funny then that his new book—a richly annotated, 384-page hardcover called King-Cat Classix, published by the high-profile Drawn & Quarterly—compiles the lion’s share of the scratchy first seven years of the zine. While there are hints, especially toward the book’s end, of Porcellino’s emerging maturity, his early autobiographical sketches revel in crude surrealism and wise-ass humor—all while maintaining a profound sweetness that would come to dominate King-Cat.
Raincoast podcasts are available from iTunes by searching for "Raincoast" or the RSS feed is available from Feedburner at 
Check out our NEWEST Podcast for Clancy with the Puck, a hilarious tale of hockey hubris.