Category: Book Reviews (Page 34 of 40)

The Hermetic Code is a Dan Brown-esque expose of the secrets of the Manitoba Legislature Building.

Frank Albo is a visiting lecturer at the University of Winnipeg and a specialist in ancient religions and western esotericism. His research concerns the influence of Freemasonry in public architecture from the 18th century to present.

Frank’s interest in ancient religions, magic and present-day architecture led him to the Manitoba Legislature Building, when one day, he was driving by, and glanced up at the entrance and noticed two sphinx.

Sphinx on the roof top. Temple guards. Ancient symbols. Fibonacci series. The Ark of the Covenant. The Legislature is packed. And it clearly is not by accident.

The Hermetic Code is a fast-paced read. It’s a coffee table book that packs a lot of punch.

The text plays on Dan Brown’s characteristic writing style, which helps move the narrative along at quite a clip.

This is a 5-star book for anyone interested in magic, architecture, Egyptology and Canadian history.

The Hermetic Code is published by Winnipeg Free Press.

Cartoonist Paschal Blanchet’s White Rapids is an absolutely beautiful book. It’s Art Deco, 1950s commercial design meets quaint story about a town built-up around a hydro dam.

This is the first English translation of Blanchet’s graphic novel about the rise and fall of the small northern Quebec town of White Rapids.

White Rapids was founded in 1928 and was the brain child of the Shawinigan Water & Power Company. It was a fully-equipped, self-contained community for workers of the dam and their families.

Pascal Blanchet’s illustrations are incredibly refined yet astonishingly simple.

PDF Preview of White Rapids by Pascal Blanchet

White Rapids by Pascal Blanchet is published by Drawn & Quarterly.

Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Big Adventure by Kristina Stephenson is a pretty fun picture book with a couple of lift the flaps.

Sir Charlie is a very brave, boy knight, who is super curious about a rather tall tower in a dark, dark wood. The dark wood, of course, is rife with beasties and a witch. But like all good fairy tales, Charlie gets to the tower top and has a wonderful surprise.

The illustrations are vivid and offer a lot to look at, however, I found that the story is a bit hard to read. There are some awkward lines. It also felt like it was a long read. This picture book is one for older kids who are willing to pay attention rather than younger bustlers.

Again, it’s a fun story, But I disliked that the stinky socks never play a role in the drama of getting to the tower top. What’s the deal?

Overall, this is a 2-3 stars out of 5.

Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Big Adventure by Kristina Stephenson is published by Egmont.

Everyone I know has a bedside table piled with books they intend to read. So do I. Usually I can keep it down to 5 titles. I often have multiples on the go. But this year, there was a rich crop of new titles that I did not manage to read.

I’ll see how many I can get to in the fading days of 2007.

1. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (HarperCollins)
My mom loved this book about a slave who forges her way to freedom and back to her homeland. I’m looking forward to reading it.

2. The Eye: A Natural History by Simon Ings (Bloomsbury)
Science, math, philosophy, history, neuroscience, anecdote and language theory. This is a crazy book about the eye. There’s a story about a guy who wears upside down glasses and eventually his brain “rights” the situation, i.e., the image flips the right way up. Can’t miss this book.

3. Other Colors by Orhan Pamuk (Knopf Canada)
Essays and a story by Orhan Pamuk, an awesome Turkish writer. I’ve wanted to read his stuff since my trip to Turkey in 2005.

4. Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil by John Ghazvinian (Harcourt Books)
Africa is rich in oil but extracting it hasn’t seemed worth the effort, well, until now. Untapped is about the heavy price Africans are paying/about to pay for the West’s obsession with oil.

5. The Immortal Game by David Shenk (Bond Street Books)
A history of chess. I just lost 3 speed chess games over the holidays. Quirky, absorbing look at how chess has captured the minds of many.

6. Here There Be Dragons by James A. Owen (Simon & Schuster)
Set in WWI London, this is a fantasy, dragon book. Fallen kingdoms, legendary heroes and towers. The next book is out in January. I have to hurry on this one.

7. Cathy’s Book by Stewart, Weisman, Brigg (Running Pressing)
A super cool, interactive book. The fictional journal of Cathy is lost. You’ve found it and by reading the journal, can try to figure out where Cathy has disappeared to. All the emails and phone numbers are functioning. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while.

8. Getting to Maybe by Frances Westley,Brenda Zimmerman and Michael Patton (Random House Canada)
If you want to change the world, this appears to be the book to read. Thoughtful, insightful, sobering and inspirational ideas for business, government, not-for-profit and individuals. Something I should definitely read for the new year.

9. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Bond Street Books)
An antiquarian bookshop, a hand-written request and a bit of mystery/history detective work. This was a very popular book in Canada and I’m disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to read it earlier.

10. Falling Man by Don DeLillo (Penguin Books)
Keith emerges from the World Trade Center and makes his way to his ex-wife and son’s home. It’s a novel about the devastation of 9/11 and the moments of after-the-event reflection of this man. It received a starred review in Booklist and I’ve been unsuccessful in making time to read this book, but I definitely will get to it.

11. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Harper Collins Canada)
Runaway bestseller about a guy who runs away with the circus. Looks fantastic.

12. House of Meetings by Martin Amis (Knopf Canada)
Described as haunting! I love Amis. Conjugal visits in the labour camps of the Soviet Union. This is the story of one of those meetings, and a problematic love triangle. I really should have read this one asap. James just noticed it and I’m sure it will disappear from my shelf.

13. The 100-Mile Diet by Alisa Smith and JB MacKinnon (Random House Canada)
I know enough about this book that I feel like I’ve read it. James read it and failed to write a review, but he does talk about it non-stop so there’s hard-core word of mouth happening there. This is the book that inspired, or rather reinforced, our habit of eating locally.

14. The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland (Random House Canada)
Sounds hilarious, and I’ve never read a Coupland book. Honestly, how can that be? I know. This is a love story set in an office supply store. It’s right up my goofy alley.

15. A Covenant of Salt by Martine Desjardins (Talonbooks)
1791. This is a novel of Quebec and Irish legend, stonecutting, and family grudges.

Any thoughts on which ones I should read first?

I first heard about Ann Patchett from my friend Jennifer who adored Patchett’s novel Bel Canto. I’ve never read the book but I feel that I intimately know the story and I’ve been anxious to read Patchett ever since.

Today I finished Ann Patchett’s latest novel Run.

Run is stellar. And Ann Patchett is an author whose backlist I’m now going to seek out. In particular I want to read The Magician’s Assistant.

But back to Run. This is a beautiful book. The structure is an example of fine writing. Although the story follows chronological order there are nice loops back to the present. At no time do you feel like you know the whole story or where it’s going to go.

What’s the premise of the Run?

Bernadette Doyle is a loving mother who wishes to have more children and cannot. She and her husband adopt a black boy and a short time later they are contacted by the agency asking if they would take the older sibling. The birth mother wishes the boys be raised together. So Tip and Teddy join Mayor Doyle, Bernadette and Sullivan. Sadly Bernadette dies early of cancer, leaving the boys to grow up without their mother. The story picks up again when the boys are in university and one gets hit by a car.

Run is well constructed, the characters are interesting, and the dynamics between the characters are a powerful representation of the alliances and enemies that form in all families.

I first heard about this book when I stumbled across the book trailer for Run on Facebook.

I’m not a fan of most book trailers but I did like this one from Harper Collins. I liked that it used images and quotes from the book to convey the story. I also liked the simple piano soundtrack.

Watching the book trailer now, it’s even more powerful because the images make more sense and I can attribute the quotes to certain characters.

Watch the trailer.

Run by Ann Patchett (Harper Collins Canada) is definitely a top 10 book for the year.

Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo of Capulet Communications recently released an ebook on social media marketing, Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook.

First, Darren and Julie are my friends. We shared office space at one time. We’ve brainstormed projects together. I went to visit them in Malta. I’m quoted in their ebook (pages 74 & 75). So if we’re talking about Getting to First Base, I’m their wingman.

Quote: Wingman: A wingman is the guy or girl you bring along to the bar when you’re single. This person’s job is to help bring over potential dates. The wingman may provide comparison shopping. For example, the wingman can act more stupid than you, thereby impressing the potential date. Or better yet, the wingman can sing your virtues. This allows for bragging opportunities that are not self-prompted. There’s a whole art to being a good wingman. A delicate balance. Just like in flight operations, the wingman positions himself/herself outside and behind (off the wing) of the leader. The wingman is your best support. Here I go.

The Introduction: Who are Darren and Julie?
Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo run Capulet Communications, which is a great web marketing and social media relations company. They are usually located in Vancouver, BC, but, more recently, have been living in Malta.

Both come from strong writing backgrounds and this strength plays out nicely in their ebook, Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook. It’s 100 pages of information and entertainment.

Matchmaker: Who is Getting to First Base for?
Basically anyone who is newly experimenting with social media marketing will benefit from reading this book. If you’re wondering whether you should start a Facebook group for your company, if you’re thinking about blogger outreach campaigns, if you want to make viral YouTube videos–this book is a great primer. Even if you’re a social media diehard, there are lots of interesting quips in the book from social media gurus who aren’t typically in the limelight. Every social media marketing book quotes Seth Godin. That’s great for Seth, but there must be other social media savvy folks out there?

Absolutely, there are.

Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook presents a balanced mix of wisdom from social media marketers who run the fame gamut. One of my favourite quotes is from Dave Olsen, Community Evangelist at Raincity, who responded “no idea” to the question “what’s the reach of your social media projects?”

No idea.

Why is that great wisdom? It’s great because Dave goes on to illustrate the importance of qualitative metrics vs. quantitative metrics. People who don’t get social media or online marketing just want to see the numbers. “How many hits did we get?” This is so misguided for many reasons. But without getting side tracked, let’s get back to Dave.

Dave continues with “what matters to me is that people from diverse culture and locations genuinely enjoy what I produce and respond with postcards, emails, dinners and gifts, or best yet, tell how important my ‘stuff’ is to them.”

What Darren and Julie illustrate in Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook is that the “stuff” has to be important enough that people are interested in talking about it. This is the key to social media marketing: first, having a good product or service; second, having something interesting and valuable to say about it; third, telling that story in ways that make it easy for people who like that story to say so and pass it on.

Even as someone who makes my living teaching people about social media marketing, Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook was a good read. In some cases the examples illustrated points that I’ve been making in presentations–it’s always good to have a variety of examples. In other cases, there are glossaries or quotes or links that I can suggest people look at–I like it when I can point to good sources of information. Most important, the book helps readers understand the tone and approach required for successful social media marketing campaigns.

So if you’re new to social media, if you want a baseline understanding of where and how to start, get the Social Media Ready ebook Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo. It $29 of goodness.

(I want to make a joke about a steal of a deal and stealing a base, but I think it will come out wrong. Please insert your own joke. Then laugh here.)

Hey, I was going to quickly come back and update this post on Thomas Wharton’s novel Icefields (NeWest Press). I can’t believe that it’s Thursday. I must have been caught in a ripple in time.

Let me tell you more about how I came upon Icefields by Thomas Wharton, which, if you don’t know, is a CBC Canada Reads pick for 2008.

Last Friday I was in Toronto presenting a session on online marketing to the Literary Press Group book publishers. I illustrated a point about how fast it is to create a blog post and to use Amazon Associates program. That was the post you saw, which, of course, needed a lot more work.

Now how did Icefields come up?

I asked the audience if anyone had a hot book this season. Lou from NeWest Press piped up with “Icefields!”

About Icefields

Quote: NeWest Press book description:

At a quarter past three in the afternoon, on August 17, 1898, Doctor Edward Byrne slipped on the ice of Arcturus glacier in the Canadian Rockies and slid into a crevasse…

Nearly sixty feet below the surface, Byrne is wedged upside down between the narrowing walls of a chasm, fighting his desire to sleep. A stray beam of sunlight illuminates the ice in front of him with a pale blue-green radiance. There, embedded in the pure, antediluvian glacier, Byrne sees something that will inextricably link him to the vast yet disappearing bed of ice, and the people who inhabit this strange corner of the world.
Read the full description …

Thomas Wharton also has a blog, logogryph.blogspot.com.

And I learned that a logogryph is a mythical creature that lives in books. Cool.

Thomas Wharton says some interesting things abuot writing Icefields…

Quote: During the writing of this book my wife and I moved to Peace River, six hours north of Edmonton. I had just finished my Master’s degree and was an unemployed at-home father in an isolated northern town. I suddenly had lots of time for writing, in between looking after a child all day. That’s one reason why the chapters of the novel are so short.
He goes on to talk about his writing room and rugged, mountain climbers who would show up at his readings … check it out.

I’m excited about this book and really looking forward to reading it. Thank you Lou for the copy.

Original Post
——————-
I’m coming back to talk about this title.

Go Canada Reads.

Icefields

Soucouyant is a novel about memory by Vancouver author David Chariandy. Soucouyant is Chariandy’s first novel, but I suspect that it’s his first published novel. I imagine he has a trunk full of manuscripts and journals chock full of notations about characters.

Soucouyant was shortlisted for the 2007 Governor General”s Literary Award and longlisted for the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Award nominations don’t normally impress me but to have two nominations for the top Canadian prizes and to be a first-time author–that’s impressive.

There’s good reason for the nominations. The novel is a twisting plot of memory fragments. Adele is suffering from dementia, she is near the end of her life and her son has returned home to care for her. The fragments of memory that tell the story are those of Adele’s childhood in Trinidad during the Second World War, of the son’s childhood in Ontario, in a house near the Scarborough Bluffs, and of both characters’ present day experiences.

The memories that comprise the whole are about discord, displacement and distance. The discord appears in stories of racism and classism that the characters suffer. The displacement is the us vs. them, the plight of immigrants, the settling in that never quite happens for this family. And the distance is that which they create between themselves. The mother’s dementia distances her mentally from the present, the father dies, which pulls the family slightly apart, the oldest son leaves home to become a poet, the youngest also flees but later returns, only to distance himself again by being emotionally guarded.

Quill and Quire did not give the book a great review, although the reviewer Dory Cerny certainly agreed that it was worth reading.

The Tyee does a much better job of getting in touch with the plotlines Chariandy is experimenting with. I highly recommend checking out what The Tyee has to say on this one. It’s a great interview with David Chariandy.

Soucoyant by David Chariandy is published by Arsenal Pulp Press, a great Vancouver publisher. If you want more about David, check out CBC Words at Large.

And, I thought the book was great. It would be an interesting book club pick because the writing is strong and the story provides ample topics to discuss. It reminded me a little bit of At the Full and Change of the Moon by Dionne Brand.

Canadian author.

I like to review a book after I’ve read it. I hope that’s a standard course of action for most reviewers. The problem is that I have a full-time job, which means that you are left to the whims of my schedule and reading habits, and this particular book cannot be washed away or soaked too long.

Katherine Ashenburg, author of The Mourner’s Dance, has published a new book with Knopf Canada, The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History.

As a cautionary sort with germs, I’ve often reflected on the origins of my cleanliness. It’s the fault of my mother and uncle. As a school kid, I came home for lunch. My mother, like all good mothers, would tell me to wash my hands. I’d run upstairs, turn the tap on, play with my hair, turn the tap off and run downstairs for my lunch. Notice there was no hand washing.

My uncle was a regular lunchtime guest. He was studying science at the university and one day brought along some books for me inspect. Science books. Science books, full of microscope photos of germs. Germs on your hands. Germs in your snot. Germs on school tables and door knobs.

I was a princessy girly-girl. I barely liked fuzzy caterpillars.

From then on I scoured my hands raw.

Did I mention that I was a child of extremes?

Katherine Ashenburg can relate to my experience. In the introduction of The Dirt on Clean, she talks about standards of hygiene reaching absurd levels in the late 50s and early 60s.

Quote: The idea of a body ready to betray me at any turn filled the magazine ads I pored over in Seventeen and in Mademoiselle … A long-running series of cartoon-style ads for Kotex sanitary napkins alerted me to the impressive horrors of menstrual blood, which apparently could announce its presence to an entire high school.

Oh, the hysteria. Imagine smelling offensive and not even knowing!

The Dirt on Clean is a history of cleanliness from a Western perspective, and what I like is Katherine’s writing style. She’s chatty yet thorough, gossipy yet respectful. She shares, for example, without naming names, some of the stories people confess about their own overly enthusiastic cleaning rituals or, more frequently, their avoidance of soap and water.

In the closing paragraph of the introduction, Katherine refers to Benjamin Franklin, who said that to understand the people of a country, he needed only to visit its graveyards.

Katherine says, “show me a people’s bathhouses and bathrooms, and I will show you what they desire, what they ignore, sometimes what they fear–and a significant part of who they are.”

So what smell are you? Mango, vanilla, smoke and sweat?

What would Katherine find in your bathroom that would betray your true colours (or smells).

I was looking for a Dan Brown-esque novel to read while in Malta–you know, a light read on goddess worship–and I found this in a bookstore in Valletta, The Maltese Goddess by Lyn Hamilton.

I was looking for a goddess worship book so that I could remind myself of some minor historical points that were alluding me, and so that I could think more about goddess worship on Malta, which seems to have been a big deal. Malta is home to the oldest freestanding structures in the world. The temples of Malta are over 5,000 years old, much older than the pyramids and Stonehenge. And the big find has been thousands of female statues.

The Maltese Goddess was an ok read. It’s labeled an archaeological mystery but really it’s a mystery set on an archaeological site–at one of the temples. The book is set initially in Toronto, where the heroine has an antique shop. Martin Galea comes in, “Mr. I’m So Wealthy I Can Fly You to My Home in Malta to Decorate.” That’s all cool and dandy until Mr. Galea turns up in Malta dead as dead is and stuffed into a dresser.

As I say, it’s light on the goddess worship but was a fun find nonetheless.