FFWD Weekly - January 6, 2005

Reflecting on the highlights of my own book year just gone by, I realized that I owed one of the year’s best moments to a Saturday afternoon at WordFest. So, thanks to producer Anne Green and the festival for introducing me to two far-flung authors: Melbourne broadcaster, Turgenev translator and writer Robert Dessaix, and Finnish comic-strip and TV writer, ad director and novelist Johanna Sinisalo. It was with a real sense of pleasure and discovery that I read their books Night Letters and Troll, respectively, and talked with the two of them and Hiromi Goto at the WordFest panel "Love is a Verb." All three authors are independent-minded imaginers of what might be, and perceptive observers of what is. Like many Calgarians, I knew Goto’s novels and stories, but now I have a few unread works by two more authors to look forward to. What more can a reader ask for at the start of a new year?

Not much. But here are a few things a citizen can ask for from local governments: responsibility, trustworthiness and honesty. (I think those things are what people have in mind when they use the current buzzword "transparency.") In their book Take Back City Hall, authors Marcel Latouche and Stephen Chapman look at municipal politics in Canada with these sorts of issues in mind. With an imminent public inquiry (or perhaps not-public, but still an inquiry) into Ward 10 voting, what could be more relevant to Calgary’s citizens? Latouche and Chapman read at McNally Robinson on Thursday, January 6 at 12 p.m.

Remember the guide book-fundraising tool called Art Seen mentioned here several weeks back? The Alberta Arts Support Society launches the book at McNally Robinson on Wednesday, January 12 at 7 p.m. The book is $20 and includes lots of discount coupons to Calgary art venues, kind of like those Treasure Chest books you may have seen around.

Best-sellers
Best-selling books for December 24 to 30 at McNally Robinson

Fiction

1. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke

2. Eleanor Rigby
by Douglas Coupland

3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
by Mark Haddon

4. Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell

5. Nights of Rain and Stars
by Maeve Binchy

6. Trace
by Patricia Cornwell

7. Shopaholic & Sister
by Sophie Kinsella

8. Rule of Four
by Ian Caldwell

9. State of Fear
by Michael Crichton

10. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith

Non-fiction

1. The Corporation
by Joel Bakan

2. Beauty Tips From Moose Jaw
by Will Ferguson

3. Here Be Dragons
by Peter C. Newman

4. The Museum Called Canada
by Charlotte Gray

5. The Way It Looks From Here
by Stephen Brunt

6. Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany
by Ben Schott

7. He's Just Not That Into You
by Greg Behrendt

8. The Art of Happiness
by the Dalai Lama

9. Eats, Shoots and Leaves
by Lynne Truss

10. Guinness Book of World Records 2005