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…
Tag: fiction
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,…
Fiction
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Knots & Crosses by Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin was in Ottawa on Saturday 30 November 2013 to talk about his new book, Saints of the Shadow Bible. Earlier that day, he was having a drink in a pub when he started chatting with one of the customers there. The guy noticed that he was Scottish, and asked Rankin what he was doing for a living. When the author told him, the guy said he was actually…
Fiction
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The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Year of the Flood, the second book in the MaddAddam trilogy, came out 6 years after Oryx and Crake in 2009. It is not a sequel, but rather a companion to the first novel as it takes place on a concurrent time. Toby and Ren survived the epidemic that killed most of the human race. A series of flashbacks informs us that Toby was a therapist in a spa…
Award
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The 2013 Governor General’s Literary Awards
Yesterday, the 14 winners of the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Awards were announced. Eleanor Catton won the best English fiction for The Luminaries. She also won the 2013 Man Booker Prize earlier this year. So now I have no choice but to read her book! 🙂 The story seems very interesting though, so I’m sure I will enjoy The Luminaries. I will post a review later on. Here are all…
Lynn Coady
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Congratulations Lynn Coady!
Yesterday, Lynn Coady won the Scotiabank Giller Prize 2013 for her collection of short-stories called “Hellgoing”. In an emotional speech, she thanked her husband, her parents and her publisher. She also added that she was proud to be a Canadian writer, especially since authors were treated like movie stars in our country. About the book (from the publisher’s website, House of Anansi): With astonishing range and depth, Scotiabank Giller Prize winner…
Fiction
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Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
On 24 September 2013, Margaret Atwood came to Ottawa to present the last book in the MaddAddam Trilogy. The event took place at the Southminster United Church, and the place was packed, a testament to the author’s fame. Margaret Atwood, all dressed in black with a red and gold shawl, talked about the dystopian world she imagined in the MaddAddam Trilogy. The story came to her almost in its entirety…