| Summer’s here and the city’s literary scene is slowing down, but there are still some events happening that might tickle your interest – including the usual fuss over the release of yet another Harry Potter book.
Hugo and Nebula Award finalist James Allen Gardner has called Danita Maslan one of the "first fresh voices of the 21st century." Maslan’s new novel, Rogue Harvest, is a genre bending work including mystery, science fiction and an environmental theme. The novel takes place in a period after the world has been decimated by plague. The assassination of political heavy Owen Lamberlin drives his daughter to find out who killed him, the evidence pointing to a radical group named Green Splinter that is hiding some other secrets as well. Maslan reads from her new work at McNally Robinson on Tuesday, July 5 at 7 p.m.
Sounding much more mysterious than they really are, the Montessori preschools place an emphasis on culture and art as a means of teaching in the classroom. Having taught the program for six years, author Gail Bryne has written an insider’s account of the program and its practices. You can hear her read from A Look Inside the Montessori Preschool at McNally Robinson on Wednesday, July 6 at noon.
Everyone’s favourite wizard (no, not Anton LaVey) is returning to rake up the cash on July 16. Yes, J.K. Rowling’s new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is on its way, with most bookstores releasing the novel at midnight (the witching hour, of course). Personally, novels featuring foppish English characters named Whosits and Whatsits turn my brain to mush. If you want to read a great book about schoolchildren, try Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. But if you’re a diehard Potter fan, and you’d like to find a fun way to usher in the arrival of Harry’s latest adventure, McNally Robinson is hosting a release party at the Telus World of Science (formerly the Calgary Science Centre). It starts at 7 p.m. with an Enchanted Museum exhibit and a screening of the third Harry Potter film, followed by distribution of the books at midnight. Tickets can be purchased at McNally Robinson.
In other news: the winners of this year’s Pat Lowther and Gerald Lampert Memorial Awards were recently announced. The Lowther award, given in memory of the late poet, went to Roo Borson for her collection Short Journey Upriver toward Oishida. The Lampert award, given in memory of the late arts administrator, recognizes the best first book of poetry by a Canadian and went to Ray Hsu for his work Anthropy.
Lest you assumed it was defunct, Fast Forward’s book club is poised to get under way shortly, beginning with a look at Chuck Pahlaniuk’s new work Haunted. If you were at Pahlaniuk’s recent reading you would have realized the huge buzz this book has generated and the swarm of cult followers he’s attracted, who read every word he puts to paper. Did anybody really faint at the reading? Just why is a work like this attracting so many readers? Pahlaniuk will be answering these and other questions as part of an upcoming discussion of Haunted by the book club in these pages. If you’d like to add your own comments on his work, send me an e-mail care of books editor Martin Morrow at mmorrow@ffwd.greatwest.ca.
Bestsellers
Bestselling books for June 20 to 26 at Pages on Kensington
Fiction and Poetry
1. In the Room of Never Grieve
by Anne Waldman
2. Zorro
by Isabel Allende
3. Grizzly Lies
by Eileen Coughlan
4. Sylvanus Now
by Donna Morrissey
5. The Portrait
by Iain Pears
6. Saturday
by Ian McEwan
7. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
8. Seen Art?
by Jon Scieszka
9. A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby
10. Re: Zoom
by Sheri-D Wilson
Non-fiction
1. Historical Walks of Calgary
by Harry M. Sanders
2. Freakonomics
by Steven Levitt
3. The Collapse of Globalism
by John Ralston Saul
4. A Short History of Progress
by Ronald Wright
5. Romancing the Rockies
by Brian Brennan
6. Don't Eat This Book
by Morgan Spurlock
7. Istanbul
by Orhan Pamuk
8. Your Call is Important to Us
by Laura Penny
9. Blink
by Malcolm Gladwell
10. Mix Tape
by Thurston Moore |
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