Summary After undergoing brain surgery to remove a tumour, Eve, a successful writer, doesn’t remember why she is in the hospital. She has to learn to walk again and improve her cognitive functions. As she goes through therapy with her husband by her side, she learns to live in the moment and appreciate small victories. Quote “You have incurable cancer, my beautiful Eve. But you keep forgetting and I have…
Category: Fiction
Fiction
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The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece – Tom Hanks
Summary Bill Johnson, a celebrated film director, makes a multi-million-dollar superhero movie based on a 1940s graphic novel. The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece takes us from the WWII soldier who inspired the graphic novel to the post-editing of the final product in modern-day California, sharing everything that goes into making movie magic. Quote “Find a Life, not an Occupation” Interesting Facts 1 Source: Screen Rant2 Source: PBS…
Fiction
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Divergent by Veronica Roth
In the first book in the Divergent Trilogy, Beatrice lives in a future Chicago where people are divided into 5 factions representing the main characteristic of each person: Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (love), Candor (honesty), Dauntless (courage) and Erudite (knowledge). Beatrice has spent her childhood in Abnegation with her family. At the beginning of the book, she has just turned 16, and she must choose which faction she will belong to…
Fiction
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Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
At the beginning of Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason, Bridget has been going out with Mark Darcy for four weeks, and she is getting used to being part of a couple. Enters Rebecca, a beautiful, successful and rich colleague of Mark who is determined to steal Bridget’s boyfriend. Seeking advice from her friends and her self-help books, Bridget becomes convinced that Mark has a lot more in common with…
Esi Edugyan
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Canada Reads 2014 Winner
Congratulations to Joseph Boyden, the Canada Reads 2014 Winner for The Orenda! Canada Reads is an annual competition where 5 personalities defend their favorite book. The debates are broadcast on CBC, and panelists eliminate one book at a time until only one is left. The remaining title is proclaimed the best book of that particular year. The award was initially created in an effort to boost sales of Canadian titles….
Fiction
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Who I’m Not by Ted Staunton
In August 2008, The New Yorker published a true story by David Grann called “The Chameleon” about a twenty-year-old Frenchman, Frédéric Bourdin, who pretended to be a missing teen, Nicholas Barclay, in San Antonio, Texas. Despite Bourdin’s French accent and his lack of resemblance to Nicholas, the teen’s family welcomed him with open arms, raising questions about their involvement in Nicholas’ disappearance. This story inspired Ted Staunton to write Who I’m Not….
Eleanor Catton
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The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize and the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Awards, drew my attention because I usually enjoy historical fiction, and I have always been fascinated by the gold rush and how people would risk everything they have in the odd chance of striking it rich. The book starts when 12 men meet on 27 January 1866 in the smoking room of a hotel to…
Fiction
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Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
The books I have gone through lately have dealt with serious stuff, so I needed something lighter to read for the holidays. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding came out a few months ago, and I thought it would be a good time to go through the whole series again. For those of you who have been hiding under a rock for the last 20 years and haven’t…
Alice Munro
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Alice Munro’s Nobel Lecture
Last week, the Nobel Prize website released a video of an interview with Alice Munro, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. Being 82 years old, she was too frail to make the trip to Stockholm to accept the prize, but this video was a great way to learn more about this amazing Canadian writer. For those of you who are not familiar with her work, Alice Munro writes…
Fiction
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MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
I arrived an hour early at Southminster United Church in Ottawa on Tuesday 24 September 2013. Already there was a line for the event One on One with Margaret Atwood. Before getting to my seat, I was given 4 buttons: “Margaret Atwood MaddAddam: See the Future, Seek the Truth”. This was the first time I was handed a gift at a literary event. I thought this was a great souvenir,…