Giller Prize Long List Announced Today

Giller Prize logo 2013

The long list for the Giller Prize has been announced.  Additionally, the prize has increased for the winner at $100,000 (thus making this the richest fiction prize in the country) and each of the four finalists will be awarded $10,000 each.  The longlist is:

• Arjun Basu, Waiting for the Man (ECW Press)
• David Bezmogis, The Betrayers (HarperCollins Canada)
• Rivka Galchen, American Innovations (HarperCollins Canada)
• Frances Itani, Tell (HarperCollins Canada)
• Jennifer LoveGrove, Watch How We Walk (ECW)
• Sean Michaels, Us Conductors (Random House Canada)
• Shani Mootoo, Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab (Doubleday Canada)
• Heather O’Neill, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night (HarperCollins Canada)
• Kathy Page, Paradise and Elsewhere (John Metcalf Books/Biblioasis)
• Claire Holden Rothman, My October (Penguin Canada)
• Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows (Knopf Canada)
• Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao (Random House Canada)

The short list will be announced October 6/14.  The gala to announce the winner will be held in Toronto November 6/14 and will likely be aired live again.

The Christie Curse by Victoria Abbott (book review)

The Christie Curse
A Book Collector Mystery
Author:  Victoria Abbott
Published:  2013
Publisher:  Penguin Group (USA)
Pages:  296 (includes recipes)
Genre:  Mystery/cozy mystery
Edition:  mass market paperback
ISBN 9780425255285

In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared—making headlines across the world—only to show up eleven days later at a spa under an assumed name. During those eleven days, did she have time to write a play?

Jordan Kelly needs a new job and a new place to live. She’s back in Harrison Falls, New York, living with her not so law-abiding uncles, in debt thanks to a credit card–stealing ex and pending grad school loans.

Enter the perfect job, a research position that includes room and board, which will allow her to spend her days hunting down rare mysteries for an avid book collector. There’s just one problem: her employer, Vera Van Alst—the most hated citizen of Harrison Falls.

Jordan’s first assignment is to track down a rumored Agatha Christie play. It seems easy enough, but Jordan soon finds out that her predecessor was killed while looking for it, and there is still someone out there willing to murder to keep the play out of Vera’s hands. Jordan’s new job is good…but is it worth her life?

My Thoughts:

It would seem the infamous play, it's very being in doubt, is a curse upon whomever seeks it.  Jordan's predecessor, while in New York seeking information about the possibility of a never before published Christie play, was pushed to his death in the subway.  This only makes Jordan more cautious as she investigates the whereabouts of a play that no one can ascertain even exists.  It's a rumour based upon the disappearance of mystery author Agatha Christie for a short period in 1926 when her first marriage ended.  Perhaps she spent her time at a spa?  Or, perhaps she spent her time in seclusion, writing a play.  No one knew for sure but conjecture would have it she was writing. This is the basis for the mystery The Christie Curse.

Jordan is hired to find it and her investigations soon become dangerous to anyone associated with her search.  Two attempts are made on a possible source's life and a woman is beaten. Everywhere Jordan turns, Officer Smiley is not far behind.  Everyone is suspicious to Jordan and it is uncertain who her enemies really are.  The search has become a matter of life and death.

Victoria Abbot is actually a mother and daughter writing duo.  The Christie Curse is the first in the new Book Collector series.  It is an excellent example of a cozy mystery with enough suspects to keep you guessing.  Like Jordan, I had brushed off the real assailant until it was too late.  Suspicion had been cast on a few others who had good cause or were just shady enough to be possible.  The characterization was plausible, scenarios wrought with suspense, and the plot twisted just enough to put me off.

For me this was a timely read as Sophie Hannah just released The Monogram Murders, a Hercule Poirot mystery and the Christie name is all the buzz right now.  The Christie Curse title caught my eye in the bookstore and the writing begs me to come back for more.  The Sayers Swindle is the second book in the series and I will be searching it out.  I'd love to collect them all.

Meet the author(s) of The Christie Curse

Victoria Abbott is a collaboration between the always very funny and creative artist, photographer and short story author, Victoria Maffini and her mother, Mary Jane Maffini, award-winning author of three mystery series and two dozen short stories. Mary Jane's two miniature dachshunds are understandably outraged that a pug and some Siamese cats have wiggled their way into the series, and now a pug has weasled her way into Victoria's home.  The indignity of it all.

Wherever I am....

I am reading Six Against the Yard, a mystery anthology with contributors like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.

What are you reading this weekend?

The Monogram Murders - Hangout with author Sophie Hannah and Mark Lawson

Discover the Secret! Monogram Murders Soon to be Released!!

My Life in a Nutshell: A Novel by Tanya J. Peterson (book review)

My Life in a Nutshell: A Novel
Author:  Tanya J. Peterson
Published:  June 2014
Publisher:  Inkwater Press
Pages:  382
Genre/Category:  Fiction
Edition:  Trade paperback
ISBN 9781629010724

Source:  a complimentary copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

HealthyPlace columnist, National Certified Counselor, and award-nominated author Tanya J. Peterson tackles anxiety disorders and the redemptive qualities of unexpected human connection in her new novel, My Life in a Nutshell.

A brilliant and talented man crippled by extreme anxiety and panic attacks, Brian has carefully crafted his world so that his interactions with others are severely limited. Although incapable of changing his situation, he discovers that, somehow, he is the only person seven-year-old Abigail can trust. Having bounced from one foster home to another, she has unexpectedly come to live with a childless uncle and aunt she has never known. For very different reasons, both Brian and Abigail are trapped in emotionally and socially isolated lives. Can they learn from each other?

Empathetic, insightful, and emotionally stirring, My Life in a Nutshell delves into the thought processes and erratic habits of a regular man dealing with life-altering mental illness, providing a unique, personal glimpse into a misunderstood and often stereotyped condition.

“Life in a Nutshell is a powerful and poignant novel. Written from a very clear and well-informed perspective, Peterson should be lauded for navigating the field of mental illness and presenting important relative issues in an affable fiction manner. It is a truly fine work that entertains, as well as informs.”

—The US Review of Books 

My thoughts

Brian, 37, works as a janitor and an IT fix-it person at a local school where his shift begins at 3pm, just before the bell rings and the school empties for the day.  Alone, he is comfortable to work on his own, cleaning and fixing.  But for the 1/2 hour that overlaps his shift with the day janitor, Brian is uncomfortable.  His counterpart chats with the children, high-fiving them; visits with the teachers and all in all is a jovial sort whom Brian envies for his ability to converse and develop these relationships.

Brian prefers the solitude of his job, the quiet, the lack of person-to-person interactions.  That's why he likes Walmart.  He can shop at 3 am and get what he needs without many people around. People make Brian anxious.  

"I'm trapped.  My chest constricts even more, and I'm suffocating.  I feel like I can't get enough oxygen, and my lungs spasm again in a  loud cough.  Now that I've started coughing fully, I can't stop.  .... I raise the bag to my face and begin to breathe into it.  It works, and my breathing gradually calms down.  My heart slows down again, and my vision returns to normal."

At the beginning of one of his shifts, Brian discovers a 7 year old girl, Abigail, sitting in the janitor room where she had gone to hide.    She screams at Brian, frightened at being found.  Brian can see the scars near her eyebrow and the tell-tale cigarette burns.  Abigail has been bounced from foster home to foster home and has obviously been abused somewhere along the way.  She doesn't trust and fears being abandoned.  But this little girl thrusts her hand into Brian's, that first day in a new school for Abigail, and a friendship is born as two people recognize in one another the frailties of the human condition, the scars seen and unseen; and together platonically find an avenue of inner redemption and release.  What they learn together and from each other helps them both to find their place in a world that seems so frightening.

As Tanya J. Peterson did with Leave of Absence, in My Life in a Nutshell, she created characters that bring mental illness into the light, shedding the stigmas related to such, and doing so in a manner that puts a face and heart to the illness.  Anxiety disorder affects about 18 percent of the US population and is one of the most common mental illnesses in the US.  That being said, Ms. Peterson uses her vast knowledge, education and experience to put a personal touch on mental illness.  Fiction is the avenue she does it with because she "believes that fiction is a powerful vehicle for teaching fact.  Further, she knows that people empathize with characters in novels, and commonly they transfer their empathy to real-life human beings."  Peterson has definitely hit on something there as you may recall movies such as As Good As It Gets and What About Bob, both of which address anxiety and mental illness; movies which have put a face to the illness and in doing so have enlightened the public, helping to change the perceptions one might have and helping to erase the stigmatization thereof.  Peterson achieves that very thing with her novels.

Tanya J. Peterson holds a Bachelor of Science in secondary education, Master of Science in counseling, and is a National Certified Counselor. She has been a teacher and a counselor in various settings, including a traditional high school and an alternative school for homeless and runaway adolescents. Peterson is an active volunteer and support group facilitator with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and she is a regular columnist for the Anxiety-Schmanxiety blog on HealthyPlace.com. She has presented at the national conference for the Mothers of Incarcerated Sons Society, the Avera Behavioral Health Center, and with libraries and book groups nationwide. Her previous titles include Leave of Absence, a novel about schizophrenia, grief, and the power of human connection, and Losing Elizabeth, a YA novel about an abusive relationship. 

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Hug a Book Week Begins Today!

A Memory of Violets - Cover Reveal

Coming February 3, 2015

 A story of two orphaned flower sellers and the young woman who was transformed by their experiences.

Barnes & Noble    Amazon  IndieBound  Books-a-Million  iTunes

From the author of the USA Today bestseller The Girl Who Came Home comes an unforgettable historical novel that tells the story of two little sisters - orphaned flower sellers - and the young woman who will be transformed by their experiences.

  ‘For Little Sister … I will never stop looking for you.’

 1876. Among the filth and depravity of Covent Garden’s flower markets, orphaned Irish sisters Flora and Rosie Flynn sell posies of violets and watercress to survive. It is a pitiful existence, made bearable only by the presence of each other. When they become separated, the decision of a desperate woman sets their lives on very different paths.

 1912. Twenty-one-year-old Tilly Harper leaves the peace and beauty of her native Lake District for London, to become assistant housemother at Mr. Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls. For years, the home has cared for London’s orphaned and crippled flower girls, taking them off the streets. For Tilly, the appointment is a fresh start; a chance to leave her troubled past behind.

Soon after she arrives, Tilly discovers a notebook belonging to Flora Flynn. Hidden between the pages she finds dried flowers and a heartbreaking tale of loss and separation as Flora’s entries reveal how she never stopped looking for her sister.  Tilly sets out to discover what happened to Rosie. But the search will not be easy. Full of twists and surprises, it leads the caring and determined young woman into unexpected places, including the depths of her own heart.

Hazel Gaynor is the author of The Girl Who Came Home (William Morrow Paperbacks; ISBN: 9780062316868; 04/15/2014). She is also a freelance writer, writing regularly for the national press, magazines and websites in Ireland and the UK. Her writing success has been featured in The Sunday Times Magazine and Irish Times and she has also appeared on TV and radio. Hazel is a guest blogger and features writer for national Irish writing website writing.ie for which she has interviewed, among others, Philippa Gregory, Sebastian Faulks and Cheryl Strayed. Hazel was the recipient of the 2012 Cecil Day Lewis award for Emerging Writers and appeared as a guest speaker at the Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference and the Historical Novel Society Conference in 2014. You can reach her at https://www.facebook.com/hazelgaynorbooks. 

William Morrow Trade Paperback; February 3, 2015; $14.99; ISBN: 9780062316899

The Medici Boy by John L'Heureux

The Medici Boy
Author:  John L'Heureux
Published:  April 2014
Publisher:  Astor+ Blue Editions LLC
Pages:  336
ISBN:  9781938231506

The worlds of art, politics and passion collide in John L’Heureux’s masterful new novel, The Medici Boy. With rich composition, L’Heureux ingeniously transports the reader to Donatello’s Renaissance Italy—directly into his bottega, (workshop), as witnessed through the eyes of Luca Mattei, a devoted assistant. While creating his famous bronze of David and Goliath, Donatello’s passion for his enormously beautiful model and part time rent boy, Agnolo, ignites a dangerous jealousy that ultimately leads to Agnolo’s brutal murder. Luca, the complex and conflicted assistant, will sacrifice all to save the life of Donatello, even if it means the life of the master sculptor’s friend and great patron of art, Cosimo de’ Medici. John L’Heureux’s long-awaited novel delivers both a monumental and intimate narrative of the creative genius, Donatello, at the height of his powers. With incisive detail, L’Heureux beautifully renders the master sculptor’s forbidden homosexual passions, and the artistry that enthralled the powerful and highly competitive Medici and Albizzi families. The finished work is a sumptuously detailed historical novel that entertains while it delves deeply into both the sacred and the profane within one of the Italian Renaissance’s most consequential cities, fifteenth century Florence.

Donatello: Art, Pain, Passion, Murder

Renowned Literary Writer Renders Controversial Life of

Mysterious Renaissance Genius

My thoughts

Thoroughly researched, The Medici Boy is a historical fiction novel ideally suited for the art connoisseur and/or a history buff.  This novel takes place in renaissance Italy and is told through the voice of young Luca Mattei.  His relationship with Donatello goes beyond that of a mere assistant as he watches the sculptor carve and create masterpieces.  Another side of Donatello is visited as well as his forbidden passions are brought to light.  Jealousy and conflict arise and Luca finds he would sacrifice anything, even another's life, for Donatello; such is his loyalty.

Donatello's sculpture of David

I was excited to read about Italy in the renaissance ages, of the incredible art of that time, and of Donatello.  I could imagine the architecture, the land, the people and this was appealing to me as a reader.  

Donatello was commissioned by Cosimo De'Medici to sculpt a statue of David, as in David and Goliath of the bible.  In 1430, Donatello completed a life-size nude depicting a triumphant David after battle.  He called the piece "Triumphant David."

The author, Mr. LH'eureux, upon visiting Italy and seeing the statue of David,  thought that someone must write the story behind the sculpture and of the artist Donatello.  That someone turned out to be him.  Mr. LH'eureux wrote this novel based upon the assumption of Donatello's homosexuality,  using historical research to help support this possibility, drawing upon the fact that during this period in time and in the city of Florence this was punishable by death.  

The beginning of this novel was challenging for me to really immerse myself in.  I found it difficult to build a reader/character relationship but it may be just me.  However, if you love art history and want to know more about the master sculptor/artist Donatello, look for The Medici Boy because beneath this fictionalized plot, lies a glimpse into the life and time of one of the undoubtedly most famous and gifted of artists. 

Meet the author

Award-winning poet, novelist, and short story writer, John L’Heureux has taught at Georgetown University, Tufts, Harvard, and (for more than 35 years) in the English Department of Stanford University where he was Lane Professor of Humanities.  There he received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and earned it again in 1998.

A prolific writer, L’Heureux has written more than twenty books of fiction, short fiction and poetry.  His works have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper’s, The New Yorker, and have been included in dozens of anthologies including Best American Storiesand Prize Stories: the O. Henry Awards.

John L’Heureux has twice received writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2006 he was awarded a Guggenheim Grant to do research for The Medici Boy, his new novel.  

He is retired and lives in Palo Alto with his wife Joan.