In yesterday’s Globe and Mail, columnist Gayle MacDonald pondered the question of why Canadians love Mr. Bean so much. The new movie, Mr. Bean’s Holiday, is drawing crowds of Canucks, but not so many Americans: on opening weekend, Mr. Bean’s Holiday captured almost 20 per cent of the box office in Canada, whereas in the States, the movie was number 4, earning just 5 per cent of the box office.
So what’s the deal? Do Canadians just get British humour more than Americans do? Or do we just have some kind of country-wide crush on Rowan Atkinson?
If you’re one of those Mr Bean loving Canadians, you might want to also check out the companion book, published by Bloomsbury UK: MR. BEAN’s DEFINITIVE AND EXTREMELY MARVELLOUS GUIDE TO FRANCE. Very modestly named, don’t you think?
Or, for younger fans, there’s MR. BEAN’S HOLIDAY ACTIVITY STICKER BOOK.
For more Mr. Bean fun, here are some links for you:
- Read the The Globe and Mail article on Mr Bean mania in Canada.
- Watch a video interview with Rowan Atkinson from the film’s premiere in Montreal earlier this month.
- Watch Just for Laughs’s video interview with Rowan Atkinson.
Were YOU one of the thousands of Canadians who saw Mr Bean’s Holiday on opening weekend? How was it? Is it as good as the original Mr Bean tv show? Let us know what you think about the Bean - and why Canucks love him so much…
Rutu Modan has been interviewed by the BBC about her acclaimed graphic novel EXIT WOUNDS:
We have also just found out that Rutu will be appearing at this year’s International Festival of Authors in Toronto with fellow Drawn & Quarterly artists James Sturm, author of the forthcoming JAMES STURM’S AMERICA (which includes the out-of-print story THE GOLEM’S MIGHTY SWING) and Adrian Tomine, whose first full-length graphic novel SHORTCOMINGS is out this fall (woop!).
(Fans of Adrian Tomine on the west coast, might also like to know that he will be appearing at Sophia Books in Vancouver on Tuesday, November 13th! More details soon...)
Monique at Work Industries has reviewed Lois Kelly’s BEYOND BUZZ: THE NEXT GENERATION OF WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING for the her company blog and newsletter ‘Underwire’:
Beyond Buzz… is about learning to create meaningful dialogue about organizations and products, instead of marketing blah blah blah.
If you are the lone evangelist in your organization… get it in front of as many managers as possible, especially those in communications, marketing and PR.
Work Industries are also offering a few free copies of book if you interested…
Here’s your chance to see some of our great authors at events around the country.
This is the list of who’s going to be where. (Sorted by location and date.)
(UPDATE: Author events have been added to this list since it was originally posted. New additions are marked below.)
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Word On The Street Vancouver
Sunday, September 30, 2007
http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/
John Lekich
Chris Mizzoni
Pascal Blanchet
Bruce Grierson
Vancouver International Writers Festival
October 16-21, 2007
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/
Justin Cartwright
John Burns
Edeet Ravel
Faïza Guène
ONTARIO
Eden Mills Writers Festival
September 7-9, 2007
http://www.edenmillswritersfestival.ca/
Edeet Ravel
International Festival of Authors, Toronto
October 17-27, 2007
http://www.readings.org/
David Leavitt
Emma Donoghue
Justin Cartwright
Will Self
Rutu Modan New Addition!
James Sturm New Addition!
Adrian Tomine New Addition!
The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings, published by Princeton Architectural Press, is a quiet charmer of a book.
The book is photographic essay Albert Hastings, an eighty-five year-old man in Wales; a documentary of his rituals and routines, as recorded by his neighbour, photographer KayLynn Deveney. There is a hand-written caption under each photo, saying things like “Laundry airing” and “Listening to my radio”.
A few of us here at Raincoast adored the book when we first saw some of the photographs, but truth be told, it is a little obscure—though, in my opinion, that is definitely part of its charm. So I was surprised—and very delighted—to see that Oprah likes it, too. Maybe it’s not so obscure after all.
This review appears in the September issue of Oprah’s O Magazine:
“You’ll find nothing less, and profoundly more in The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings (Princeton Architectural Press), photographer KayLynn Deveney’s quietly moving late-life portrait. Hastings’s handwritten captions create a revealing double perspective.”—O Magazine
Here are a few pages from the book, to give you a taste of what it’s like. Click on the image below to see a larger version.
Sadly, Albert Hastings passed away in February, 2007. He was 91 years old.
CBC.ca recently published a great round-up and commentary on film adaptations of Jane Austen novels.
As noted in the article, there a lot of different types of so-called Jane Addicts out there. Here are some summer reading lists for all levels of Austen-obsession.
For the Budding Jane Addict
If you’ve seen - and love - the movies (or, ahem, Colin Firth), but have yet to read the books, pick up Bloomsbury UK’s new edition of Pride And Prejudice with an introduction by Meg Cabot, author of the Princess Diaries.
For the Traditional Jane Addict
If you’re a collector, or if you’re catching up on your classics, then turn to these books. Alma Books’ One World Classics imprint is releasing some gorgeous new editions of favourite Jane Austen titles, Pride And Prejudice and Emma.
For the Experimental Jane Addict
So, you’ve read Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. Now what? Not to worry, you can still get a your fix - there’s a whole world of lesser known books by Jane Austen to explore. These titles are all published by Hesperus Press.
For the Daydreaming Jane Addict
If you think that Austen’s world is looking better and better (I mean, where are people’s manners these days?), you’re not alone.
In her novel, Austenland, Shannon Hale writes about Jane, a contemporary New Yorker who is secretly obsessed with Jane Austen novels and Mr Darcy. One day, she discovers a wealthy relative has bequeathed her a trip to an English resort ... which caters to women obsessed with Jane Austen. Is it a dream come true, or should her secret obsession have remained a secret?
In The 25 Pains Of Kennedy Baines, Kennedy is unimpressed with the lack of romance in real life. For that, she has to resort to Jane Austen novels and Colin Firth movies. That is, until a hot 18-year old boy from England (also named Colin!) comes to visit…
For the “This is not a Book, it’s a Lifestyle” Jane Addict
And, last but not least, if you want to take the next step and actually be like the characters in Jane Austen’s novels, there’s help. And by help, I don’t mean that we can help you get over your obsession. I mean, we’ll help you get as Austen-tatious as you can be. Check out The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide To Her World (published by Quirk Books), Jane Austen’s Guide To Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders (published by Bloomsbury UK), or Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels (published by Frances Lincoln).
So ... what kind of Jane Addict are YOU?
Stuart McLean, host of Vinyl Café on CBC Radio, has publicly vowed not to buy any more books.
Kind of.
I know a lot of you out there can relate to this. I know I can!
Alidë Kohlhaas has posted a extensive review of Günter Grass’ contentious memoir PEELING THE ONION on the Lancette Arts Journal website:
The controversial German winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature has chosen tell us a bit about himself and in the process has revealed a lot, and then again, very little. The reason for this statement is that Grass plays a mental game with his readers about his early life story and what has motivated him to be who he is. He does this game playing very artfully as he jumps back and forth between memory and speculation.
But, whilst admiring Grass’ artistry, Alidë does not let him off the hook:
A tone of resentment and even self-pity runs through the book. He far too often makes mention of the ‘Gustloff’, the German ship sunk by an overeager Russian captain with thousands of civilians as well as soldiers and nurses aboard. It was the subject of his book ‘Crabwalk’ in which he began his whining about the victimization of Germans during WWII. While this act of unnecessary carnage is regrettable, let Grass be reminded that a U-Boat attack on a civilian liner, the Athena on Sept. 3, 1939 was an unprovoked killing of civilians, the first of its kind in WWII. The sinking of the Lusitania in WWI by the Germans was the first of its kind in any modern war… Self-pity and self-justification can lead a writer down a very slippery slope, in this case a watery one.
John Irving was more forgiving of Grass in a strident defense of the author in The New York Times Book Review, but Joel Yanofsky who reviewed PEELING THE ONION for The Montreal Gazette seems to agree with Alidë:
Memoirs, the best of them, always walk a fine line between the self-serving and the self-excoriating, and while Grass is hard on himself in Peeling the Onion, he’s not hard enough, especially when it comes to the long-overdue confession at the core of the book—his time in the SS.
And so the controversy continues… Perhaps the only way to decide is to read the book for yourself...?
UNTAPPED: THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA’S OIL by John Ghazvinian, one of the most timely non-fiction books of the season, has just been reviewed by the good people at Rabble.ca:
Untapped aims at being far more than a mere catalogue of… sorry statistics… and Ghazvinian traveled to twelve countries to discover something of the ways in which oil can torture impoverished nations… Untapped is… a strong piece of journalism, a thorough look of the effect the world’s most divisive resource can have on some of its most divided and troubled nations, a worthy attempt at understanding a harmful collision of prospectors, corporations, fishermen, farmers, nomads, despots, guerilla armies, and roughneck opportunists.
Monique has reviewed Young-ha Kim’s eerie love story I HAVE THE RIGHT TO DESTROY MYSELF over at her blog So Misguided:
highly dreamlike and cinematic… There’s a certain dark brilliance in the writing and how Young-Ha Kim has captured the tone of these listless characters… the intensity and aimlessness of the characters is alarming and the ease with which they seem to destroy themselves is unnerving.
Monique is not alone in identifying the dark qualities of the the book. This is what the LA Times had to say about it:
The philosophy—life is worthless and small—reminds us of Camus and Sartre, risky territory for a young writer. Such heady influences can topple a novel. But Kim has the advantage of the urban South Korean landscape. Fast cars, sex with lollipops and weather fronts from Siberia lend a unique flavor to good old-fashioned nihilism. Think of it as Korean noir.
Apparently it’s also been made into a movie. Has anyone seen it?
It’s not every day that the the worlds of publishing and high fashion collide. Sure, there are some awesome books on fashion, but how often do you see books that are literally ON fashion?
Well, Princeton Architectuaral Press has made that happen. French fashion label Comme des Garçons used illustrations from the book, BLACKSTOCK’S COLLECTIONS: THE DRAWINGS OF AN ARTISTIC SAVANT, as prints on their clothing in their Spring / Summer 2008 collection.
BLACKSTOCK’S COLLECTIONS is an in-house fave here at Raincoast; it’s page after page full of meticulous drawings that list and categorize items, such as different kinds of wasps, tools, knots or barns. Totally mesmerizing.
There are more images of Comme des Garçons’ Blackstock’s Collection clothing on the Princeton AP blog, as well as some shots of the runway show.
What book would you like to see made into a clothing line? Personally, I think an outfit made out of Chester Brown’s Louis Riel would be pretty stylin’.
Today reviews arrived in my mailbox for my two favourite Johns- John Burns and John Lekich. Both contained great quotes.
Here is the review for King of the Lost and Found by John Lekich in The Magazine:
“Raymond Dunne is a 10th grader who doesn’t fit in and is prone to nose bleeds, fainting spells and an assortment of other health problems. When he befriends Jack Alexander, a transfer student, his luck starts to change. Written with plenty of humour mixed in with a few touching moments, this book makes you root for Raymond as the author does a good job of bringing you along for his ride.
VERDICT: This summer’s funniest book yet.” -A.S.
-AND-
Here is my favourite quote from Books in Canada: The Canadian Review of Books from their review of Runnerland by John Burns:
“Told with insight, empathy, talent and skill, Runnerland is an intriguing story about kids, forced to take graduate courses from the school of hard knocks. Every word is worth reading.” -M. Wayne Cunningham
Way to go John and John! Pick up one or both of these books for great summer reading for any teen!
Also a big THANK YOU! to our fabulous Canadian Reviewers.
Happy Reading!
Looking for a fun activity to do with the kids to escape the hot summer days? Canadian Family Magazine is having their First Annual Summer Book Club. 5 out of the 8 authors and illustrators participating are Raincoast Published or Distributed Authors.
Each author or illustrator is doing one or two events in their hometown so readers can come out and meet them.
Click here for a complete list of the authors participating and who will be reading in your home town.
Our author participating are:
Cynthia Nugent the illustrator of The Aunts Come Marching.
Edeet Ravel the author of The Pauline BTW Trilogy Books- The Thrilling Life of Pauline de Lammermoor, The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary and The Secret Journey of Pauline Siddhartha.
Victoria Miles the author of Old Mother Bear and Wild Science.
Frieda Wishinsky the author of The Canadian Flyer Adventures.
And Dave Whamond the illustrator of The Hot Dog and Bob Adventures
Support Canadian authors and illustrators! Pick up a Canadian book this summer!
Happy Reading!
It’s been 40 years since the publication of Eric Carle’s first illustrated book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
To celebrate the anniversary—and the work of this brilliant picture book creator—NPR visited Eric Carle in his studio to talk about his work, inspiration—and even his favourite colour.
If you’re a fan, be sure to check out the audio-slideshow of NPR’s interview with Eric Carle, and also read the article on NPR.org.
Chronicle Books (which, coincidentally, is also celebrating it’s 40th anniversary this year!) has brought out some fun Eric Carle items such as Animal Flash Cards, and the Up, Up I Go Growth Chart. Just released this month are the Eric Carle Animal Lacing Cards, which are tons of fun for little hands.
For a full list of Chronicle’s Eric Carle gift items, click here.
Parents, teachers and librarians who want to learn more about Eric Carle should visit the Caterpillar Exchange on the author’s website: it’s a bulletin board where fans can post their ideas and suggestions on how to use Eric Carle’s books in creative ways. The projects involve all kinds of disciplines, from reading and writing, to science and math, to art and other fun activites.
Congratulations to Pulitzer Prize winning poet Charles Simic on becoming the 15th U.S. Poet Laureate today!
The New York Times reports:
James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, will announce Mr. Simic’s appointment. Mr. Billington said he chose Mr. Simic from a short list of 15 poets because of “the rather stunning and original quality of his poetry,” adding: “He’s very hard to describe, and that’s a great tribute to him. His poems have a sequence that you encounter in dreams, and therefore they have a reality that does not correspond to the reality that we perceive with our eyes and ears.”
Yugoslavian-born Charles Simic, emigrated to the U.S. in 1954. His collection of poems THE WORLD DOESN’T END won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 and, like his latest collection of poetry THE VOICE AT 3:00 A.M., it is published by Harcourt, inc. and distributed by Raincoast in Canada.
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