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Kendra Martin

Will Mark Zuckerberg lead the next Oprah Book Club?

Will Mark Zuckerberg lead the next Oprah Book Club?

Articles,publishing

It was announced that Mark Zuckerberg crowd-sourced his New Year’s resolution, and he decided upon reading a book every two weeks in 2015. Journalists speculate the creator of Facebook will be bringing increased attention to specific books and their authors, much like Oprah’s Book Club elevated certain books in its hey-day.

Oprah was hugely successful with her book club. Her talk show had a loyal following of viewers who easily fit into the expected audience of book buyers and readers. Oprah’s stamp of approval for a book meant a lot to viewers who put their trust in Oprah’s winning taste.

Does Mark Zuckerberg have the same sort of loyalty from his own generation? Will his stamp of approval to a book garner increased sales as people rush out to follow in Mark’s footsteps? And will publishers and booksellers jump on the bandwagon as they did with Oprah Book Club picks, promoting the books as Mark’s picks?

I’m optimistic. Any endeavour that brings books to new audiences and places reading in the public sphere is good in my books!

On that note, happy reading in 2015!

Who Will Win the Giller Prize?

Who Will Win the Giller Prize?

Book Review

Having just purchased my ticket to the annual Giller Light Bash, my thoughts are turning to who will win the prestigious honour this year. I’ve only read two books from the six-book shortlist; I’m really excited about both these choices. They are both really strong books that highlight current issues dealt with by women: body image and rape.

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl is a series of stories about the same woman over her lifetime as she struggles with her weight, but more importantly her self-confidence and ambition that becomes inexorably tied up in how much she weighs.

The Best Kind of People comes from a favourite Toronto author of mine, Zoe Whittall, who creates the story of a family dealing with the aftermath of a beloved father, husband and teacher who’s been charged with rape of three students. The novel presents a rounded view of the issue of rape, and how we as a society distort the issue, treat (or mis-treat) the victims and the accused in such cases. How much do we ever know another person vs project our own desires and motivations on that person?

I’m actually rooting really hard for either of these books to win, if only because they were hugely entertaining, thought-provoking books on my reading list for 2016.

[Read my review of The Best Kind of People | Read my review of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl]

 

The Giller Longlist

The Giller Longlist

publishing

When the Giller Prize longlist was announced on Sept. 24th, I decided to reserve at the library as many books as I could from the thirteen-book list. There were a few I omitted: Sanctuary Line by Jane Urquhart (I’ve read a couple of her books, but her writing is not my cup of tea) and a few others for lack of interest or availability.

So I narrowed the list down to my own ‘shortlist’ of eight titles. I plan to see if I can possibly read as many as possible before the announcement of the prizewinner on Nov. 9th. Then I can gloat or pout depending on the result! The bonus is that I will read some damn fine Canadian fiction before the year is through.

Kendra’s Giller Shortlist

  1. Cool Water by Dianne Warren. The first one is done! Read my review here.
  2. Annabel by Kathleen Winter
  3. Cities of Refuge by Michael Helm
  4. Lemon by Cordelia Strube
  5. This Cake is for the Party by Sarah Selecky
  6. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
  7. Matter with Morris by David Bergen
  8. The Sentimentalists by Johanna Shively Skibsrud

I’ll be posting my reviews here and on GoodReads in the next five weeks. I’d love to hear what everyone else is saying about these books!

Everything you wanted to know about Stieg

Everything you wanted to know about Stieg

Articles

I opened the March 2011 issue of The Walrus and read a delicious gossipy article by Paul Wilson about Stieg Larsson, his Millennium trilogy, and the geography of Sweden as it’s portrayed in Larsson’s novels. I’m a fan of the Dragon Tattoo trilogy; I’ve decided I love the books because of the excellent mixture of mystery, fact-finding, hackers, foreign locales, and feminism. If you also enjoy the books, I recommend you read this article, especially if you love behind-the-scenes stories about novelists and how they create their character and setting.

“The Archivists” by Paul Wilson  |  from The Walrus March 2011 issue | read it online

Review: Watch How We Walk

Review: Watch How We Walk

Book Review

Watch How We WalkA simple and compelling story about a claustrophobic family relationship, told from the perspective of the youngest daughter, Emily. Her family are devout Jehovah’s Witnesses and the strictness of the church and her father makes tensions simmer deep and long.

I’m assuming that Jennifer LoveGrove depicts devout Jehovah’s Witnesses with some accuracy — for me it was fascinating to read about how Emily struggled to reconcile her deep belief that worldly people and things are evil with her real desires to make friends, to fit in at school, and to question her upbringing.

I won’t share the ending — one I didn’t predict! — but just to say the ending was a surprise to me and I liked the choice!

 
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