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* The Da Vinci Code finally coming in paperback *
At last, The Da Vinci Code is coming out in paperback. [More]

2006 Hollywood Book Festival - Call for Entries *
The 2006 Hollywood Book Festival has issued a call for entries to its annual program celebrating books that deserve greater recognition from the film, television, game and multimedia communities. [More]

The Beaver puts on a new face *
Canada's oldest history magazine is staying up to date with a redesign. [More]

A drama of home improvement *
Frances Mayes's bestseller Under the Tuscan Sun tells the story of a woman who buys a villa and has it renovated. So how do you make a movie about that? [More]

A eulogy for the cranky Alberta Report *
Sixty-hour work weeks were common, the publisher was crusty and budgets tiny, SHAWN McCARTHY recalls, but young journalists were given a chance to shine [More]

A Long Short War, Why Are We at War? & Dreaming War -- Three intellectuals in search of an empire *** 1/2
Golden-age fantasists like to say rhetorical standards have lately declined, along with everything else, from baseball to the weather; and no doubt this is true if, for instance, one compares a George W. Bush press conference with the Lincoln-Douglas debates. [More]

A plea for the plausible in historical novels *
The American novelist Edmund White published an essay in a recent issue of the Times Literary Supplement -- the most highbrow review of books in the commercial media -- that addresses issues all writers of fiction have grappled with. [More]

A refuge for writers who are too lonely for words *
Virginia Woolf believed that one of the keys to a writer's success is having a room of one's own. But in New York, where struggling writers routinely refer to a single room as, you know, their apartment, the probability of a space set aside for writing is as elusive as a legal place in the city to smoke and drink at the same time. [More]

A sister's journey: from darkness to light *
Maggie de Vries's sister went missing on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside five years ago. Writing a book about the loss has been painful, but cathartic [More]

A writer's best friend: Jack McClelland tribute (2) *
Salesmanship, promotion, putting the writer first: advice Jack McClelland gave the next generation of publishers... [More]

Academic admits to profane hoax on literary rival *
A biographer of English poet Sir John Betjeman has confessed to writing a hoax love letter that duped a rival author, a British newspaper reported Sunday. [More]

ACROSS THE COUNTRY -- Arts in Canada *
Theatre: Dan Needles's Wingfield's Progress, starring Rod Beattie, continues to June 19 at the Vancouver Playhouse... [More]

Adobe Demonstrates. . . *
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the company's activities at drupa 2004 in Dusseldorf, the largest international tradeshow for print media, publishing and converting. [More]

Alice Kane, 95: Storyteller transported her audience *
Having grown up in a large Irish family, librarian and teacher loved to tell traditional folk and fairy tales [More]

Amazon sues Toronto company over name use *
Amazon.com Inc. has launched a series of lawsuits against marketers, including a Toronto firm advertising a penis enlargement product, that the on-line retailer alleges are falsely using its name. [More]

Amazon to join retailing fracas with cuts in prices *
Amazon.ca will launch an aggressive push next year on cutting its prices even further to offer the best deals in Canada, yet another challenge for domestic retailers already overwhelmed by steep competition. [More]

Amazon to offer book content *
Amazon.com is pushing an ambitious plan that would create an on-line searchable archive of tens of thousands of nonfiction books, according to reports. [More]

Amazon.com to sell new 'Harry Potter' *
The fifth novel in the popular Harry Potter series, due out in one month, will be Amazon.com's largest new product release, the on-line retailer said Wednesday. [More]

Amazon.com's new on-site search function *
Here's an interesting new wrinkle from Amazon.com -- You could win a Segway Transporter for your opinion of how well the new feature works! [More]

Anne of green gavels? *
For the past 13 days, Ruth Macdonald has been wheeled into courtroom 410 in Toronto's Superior Court to take her front-row seat with her family, who are fighting a $55-million libel suit launched by a former business partner, Sullivan Entertainment. [More]

Another Potter character to die, Rowling says *
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said Friday that one of her characters will not survive the next book in her series about the young wizard — but refused to say who would die. [More]

Ashley McIsaac: Fiddling with Disaster *
Celtic-punk fiddler Ashley McIsaac, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, has put his own stamp on traditional Celtic music for almost two decades. Now, in his autobiography, Ashley recounts his climb from Creignish to New York and beyond, and pulls no punches in the story of his subsequent troubles with fame, drugs and the media. [More]

Atwood gets fourth Booker nomination *
Canadian author Margaret Atwood has picked up her fourth nomination for the Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards and one that she won three years ago. [More]

Atwood shortlisted for Booker *
In a startling list dominated by works from first-time novelists, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake is the only book by an established writer to make it onto the shortlist of the prestigious Man Booker Prize, announced yesterday at a press conference in London [More]

Author of teen suicide book 'disinvited' from Young Writers' Conference *
Marion Crook, a well-respected author of young adult novels and non-fiction books by and for young adults, was told this week by the superintendent's office of Surrey School District No. 36 that she was no longer invited to speak to a teenaged audience at the Surrey Writers Conference. . . [More]

Author's generosity of spirit enriched lives of her readers *
The last time I saw Carol Shields, in March of this year, she was sitting beside her husband, Don, in the small, sun-filled conservatory of her home in Victoria... [More]

BC Chef -- Bill Jones -- Nets Global Cookbook Award *****
Whitecap books and Bill Jones are pleased to announce that Bill's latest book Salmon: The Cookbook (Whitecap Books 2005) has landed a huge catch, a win at the 2005 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. [More]

Beijing pulls pages from Clinton memoir *
Former first lady's frank references to repression in China fail to appear in new Mandarin edition. [More]

Beyond the Crazy House: Changing the Future of Madness -- This way madness lies *
Psychiatric survivor Pat Capponi has successfully rebuilt her life despite a mental-health system that sees patients as diseases and not as people. [More]

Black says he won't cede control of Hollinger Int'l *
Conrad Black now says he won't cede control of newspaper publisher Hollinger International Inc., backing away from a highly publicized announcement made just one month ago. [More]

Black suffers stinging defeat *
A Delaware judge has blocked Conrad Black's plan to sell control of his publishing empire, Hollinger International Inc., to the Barclay brothers of Britain, saying Lord Black consistently breached his duties to the company. [More]

Book about Homolka returns *
Paperback edition without the photos... [More]

Book buying up 23 per cent, report says *
A new report, Who Buys Books In Canada?, based on 2001 Statistics Canada survey information, reveals that Canadians spent $1.13-billion on books that year -- up 23 per cent from 1997. . . [More]

Book fair heavy on Franco-Ontarian authors *
Few things are as invisible as a French-language book fair in Toronto... [More]

Bradbury celebrates 83rd birthday *
Science fiction author Ray Bradbury celebrated his 83rd birthday with this wish... [More]

Bruce McCall: The cartographer of woe *
Bruce McCall has some rules for being a successful humorist, JESSICA JOHNSON writes. Be an outsider, drop out of school and don't get your hopes up. [More]

Canada cool to Hollywood madam *
Another Hollywood celebrity has cancelled a planned visit to Toronto, but this time it has nothing to do with fear of the SARS outbreak. [More]

Canada Reads promises to be a thriller *
Canada does not tend to have the kind of literary tempests that churn through the cultural tides of other countries. There's no Canadian equivalent of Roddy Doyle slamming the reputation of James Joyce, as the author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha did last week to eye-widening, delicious horror in Ireland and Britain. [More]

Canadian authors' fame spreads worldwide *
'There's a way that children's books are . . . telling people about Canada,' author Tim Wynne-Jones tells LUMA MUHTADIE [More]

Canadian books on 'best-loved' list *
Canadian author Carol Shields's latest novel Unless made it on to the top 10 of the United Kingdom's 50 best-loved books written by women in a list compiled by the Orange cellular telephone company. [More]

Canadian flashes a mighty pen *
As editor of Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter can make or break Hollywood's A-List; now he's trying to make or break the White House. [More]

Canadian Potter sales up 25 per cent over No. 6 *
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows rules, and probably will rule for quite some time. [More]

Canadian publisher Jack McClelland dead at 81 *
Jack McClelland, whose showmanship and business savvy made McClelland and Stewart one of Canada's most influential publishing houses, died Monday at age 81. [More]

Carol Shields dies at 68 *
Carol Shields, one of the country's most celebrated and beloved writers, has died at her home in Victoria, surrounded by family. She was 68. [More]

Carol Shields: 'I liked to think that women had found one another' *
In an interview, Carol Shields says she was astonished by the success of Dropped Threads, an anthology of women's writing, two years ago. Now, volume two arrives... [More]

Chatty Ashley has lots to say, but is anyone still willing to listen? *
Ashley MacIsaac, the virtuosic and volatile Cape Breton fiddler who made self-destruction a public endeavour, popped up in Halifax to sign his new autobiography, Fiddling With Disaster, the first and last stop on a one-city book tour. [More]

Chicago paper overstated its circulation *
Hollinger International Inc. says the Chicago Sun-Times overstated circulation figures, the latest scandal to hit the Hollinger International Group of newspapers. [More]

Chick Lit puts on a new face -- A round-up of Chick-Lit *
A round-up of the new "Chick Lit" for your summer reading pleasure. . . [More]

Children's Authors: What do these two have in common? *
REBECCA CALDWELL dives into a children's bookstore to discover what unites Margaret Atwood, Madonna and other celebrities [More]

Chinese Potter book hits the web *
Chinese fans of Harry Potter are posting unauthorized translations of the latest book on the Internet and the Chinese-language publisher says it has no right to stop them. [More]

Chinese Potter goes on sale early *
The Chinese-language publisher of the latest Harry Potter adventure said on Thursday that it is rushing the book into stores this weekend ahead of schedule, hoping to thwart pirates who are selling badly translated copies. [More]

Chocolat covers postal walks *
You can move, but can't hide, from new Rogers magazine. . . [More]

Clarke reaps third prize for Hoe *
Austin Clarke made it a hat trick last night when he added the £10,000 ($22,300) Commonwealth Writers Prize to the laurels he has already won for The Polished Hoe (Thomas Allen). [More]

Clinton plays down Lewinsky affair *
For Bill Clinton, his greatest failures as president have nothing to do with the scandal over his affair with a White House intern. [More]

Clinton's autobiography discusses Lewinsky fallout *
Bill Clinton says in his new autobiography that his wife looked as if he had punched her in the gut when he finally confessed to his affair with Monica Lewinsky, and he slept on the couch for at least two months after that. [More]

Coming soon: Conrad Black the movie *
A movie-of-the-week about the life of Conrad Black could be on the CTV schedule as early as 2005, says a network spokesman. [More]

Controversial novel pulled from stores *
Rarely has an author succeeded, then failed, so quickly as Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard University sophomore who acknowledged lifting material from another author's work for her debut novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life. [More]

Copies of new Harry Potter book turn up in Brooklyn store *
A Daily News reporter was able to buy the latest Harry Potter sequel before its much-anticipated release, and the newspaper published a short preview of the novel on Wednesday. [More]

Copps cuts magazine dollars *
Smaller pot of cash to be made available to a larger number of periodicals -- but it may spell the end for magazines like Homemaker's. [More]

Copyright bill passes *
An amended version of the so-called "Lucy Maud Montgomery provision" has been passed by a vote in the House of Commons. [More]

Cracking the code of Sir Francis Drake *
It was a whim that led former B.C. cabinet minister Samuel Bawlf to wonder if Drake might have sailed the coast of British Columbia before Captain Cook. As MARK HUME reports, it became a fascination [More]

Dallaire book takes Writers' Trust prize *
On a big day for book prizes, the biggest went to Roméo Dallaire. The retired Canadian lieutenant-general last night won the $15,000 Writers' Trust of Canada's Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing, for his searing memoir, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (Random House). [More]

Dallaire's Rwandan tale slated for film *
Halifax-based Salter Street Films has secured the rights to retired lieutenant-general Roméo Dallaire's upcoming book on his experience in Rwanda. [More]

Dan Greenberg in Vancouver, 2006 *
Just a reminder that Dan Greenburg will be in Vancouver, April 13th. . . [More]

Dan Greenberg's weird universe *
The American writer and humorist Dan Greenburg has, for some time now, made a very respectable living based, essentially, on a four-letter word that starts with "F." [More]

David Adams Richards: Virtuoso of inebriation **** 1/2
In close to 20 novels, David Adams Richards has created a rich cast of outsiders, many of whom struggle with addiction. He talks to SANDRA MARTIN about the seductive lure of drinking and smoking, and the love of writing that helped him overcome his own demons [More]

DIY Book Festival Sets Award dates for 2005 *
Los Angeles, CA. The 2005 DIY Book Festival has set Saturday, October 8, 2005 as the date for its annual awards ceremony honouring the success of independent authors and publishers. [More]

Drawn back to the land of spirits *
Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan has returned to writing with a novel in which a murdered woman's ghost revisits her life. [More]

Exhausted and infuriated *
Toronto's Lola Magazine and Vancouver's Blinding Light Cinema were two of Canada's richest cultural voices. Their demise says a lot about cultural burnout [More]

Fabricator Stephen Glass: The truth, the whole truth and nothing but... *
was inevitable that Stephen Glass's first novel would be based on a true story. That it is his own is what makes it unusual. [More]

Faulkner? Well, not quite *
A Virginia man's wordy parody of Goldilocks and the Three Bears was neither too serious nor too silly, but just right — and judges selected his spoof as the winner of the 14th annual Faux Faulkner contest. [More]

Find a Husband After 35 Using What I Learned at Harvard Business School: When cupid turns headhunter *
Can't find a romantic partner? Take some tips from a Harvard MBA grad on how to find the perfect match [More]

Finding Home: In the Footsteps of the Jewish Fusgeyers *
ISBN:1-894549-40-6
Author:Jill Culiner
Publisher:Sumach Press
Jewish Community Centre, November 21, 2004, Vancouver, BC., 8:00 p.m. -- Author Jill Culiner has uncovered a largely forgotten corner of Jewish history, The Fusgeyers (the Yiddish word for 'foot-goers' — wayfarers) were Jews who fled persecution in Romania in the early 1900s in order to find refuge, ultimately, in the New World. [More]

First-time novelist in his literary prime **** 1/2
SANDRA MARTIN talks to Mark Haddon, whose compelling debut novel narrated by an autistic teen looks set to be filmed by the Harry Potter team [More]

Flavours of Cooper's Cove Guesthouse named finalist *
Prosperi-Porta is an award-winning chef, and with his partner, Ina Haegemann, he owns and operates the luxurious Cooper's Cove Guesthouse on the Sooke waterfront on Vancouver Island, BC. [More]

For Us, The Living: Back to the future *** 1/2
The heart-tugging, familiar voice of Robert A. Heinlein returns with the publication of his first novel, written in 1939. It's a fascinating work, a special gift for fans of the science-fiction grandmaster, says SPIDER ROBINSON [More]

Foreign book publishers boost Canadian industry *
The book industry in Canada grew substantially in 2000-2001, but that didn't mean it was all good news for Canadian book companies. [More]

Frances Partridge passes away at 103 *
Diarist Frances Partridge, last survivor of the literary Bloomsbury Group's most famous love quadrangle, has died at the age of 103. [More]

Garber rant: Fiction versus real-life and predictions about the Da Vinci Code *
I think the next volley in the Da Vinci debate is that those alleged blood-line descendants of Jesus and Mary -- the purported Merovingians -- will reveal themselves. Good idea, huh? [More]

George Plimpton -- from the inside out *
ROY MacGREGOR reflects on career of legendary author [More]

Getting even is healthy, says author *
In his new book, Life's Little Annoyances, New York Times reporter Ian Urbina offers a compendium of the molehills we turn into mountains and our inventive strategies for coping with them. [More]

Giants and behemoths: Abebooks *
Some months ago I wrote a column wondering why the Internet, which was supposed to foster competitiveness, is being dominated by behemoths with few or no competitors - Amazon, eBay and Google, for example. [More]

Giller winner 'overwhelmed' *
Sales of M. G. Vassanji's novel The In-Between World of Vikram Lall get a boost from high-profile prize. [More]

Gonzo with the wind *
A new owner's promise to revive Creem magazine is prompting sceptical guffaws from some of its original writers, including ALAN NIESTER , who here recalls the golden age of a publication that lived and breathed rock 'n' roll [More]

Google guys find their way on to Forbes *
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and the founders of the Google search engine have landed on Forbes magazine's annual list of billionaires after a year when rallying stocks and a strong euro swelled the list to the longest it's ever been. [More]

Greg Gatenby's departure -- Please don't have a nice day *
'Brilliant Canadian, not as nice as some," was the essence of the reaction to the departure of Greg Gatenby, the founder and director of Canada's best literary festival. [More]

Hands off this cliché! *
It must be the silly season. In the United States, the Fox News Channel (Rupert Murdoch, prop.) is suing Al Franken, a satirist familiar from the TV show Saturday Night Live, for using the phrase "fair and balanced" on the cover of his new book. [More]

Harry Potter and the Big Hoopla *
Up and down Vancouver's Oak Street late Friday night, droves of 20-somethings -- Harry Potter fans -- were wearing scarves in the colours of Gryffindor and flowing capes and wielding magic wands in hopes of being among the first to read the highly anticipated seventh book. [More]

Harry Potter and the Closet of Shame *
When J.K. Rowling revealed last week that she had always thought of her character -- master wizard, Albus Dumbledore -- as gay, her disclosure was met with an angry reaction. [More]

Harry Potter and the goblet of hype *
Somewhere in the darkest heart of Vancouver, 935,000 copies of a top-secret book are now being printed and packed into unmarked boxes. The boxes bear a single stamp with a 1-800 number to call should someone discover that a box has been tampered with. [More]

Harry Potter and the Lawyers from Pennsylvania? *
In case you were wondering whatever happened in that lawsuit against Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, here's the skinny. . . [More]

Harry Potter books found in field *
The publisher of the Harry Potter books said Tuesday it feared copies of J.K. Rowling’s latest — as yet unpublished — novel had been stolen after a newspaper reported that two of the books were found in a field. [More]

Harry Potter conquers France's best-seller list *
The latest Harry Potter novel has become the first book in English to be number one on France's best-seller list. [More]

Harry Potter Hysteria: Witching hour draws near *
With a jangle of cash registers and a whoosh of witches' capes, bookstores across Britain rang up the first official sales of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix just after the stroke of midnight Saturday, bringing the boy wizard's fifth magical adventure to a legion of adoring fans. [More]

Harry Potter launch over-the-top in sales *
"Orderly pandemonium" reigned at Border's Books in Southcenter at midnight Saturday, when "several hundred" youngsters and their parents turned out to pick up pre-ordered copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. [More]

Harry Potter makes sun shine on Raincoast *
Harry Potter has bestowed a magic money-making wand on Vancouver publisher Raincoast Books at a time when book returns from retailers are piling up faster than ever. [More]

Harry Potter not working magic on bottom line *
Hefty discounting means booksellers not reaping a bonanza, SANDRA MARTIN writes [More]

Harry Potter: Adults get hardcover edition *
Adult Harry Potter readers conscious of still looking adult as they read the latest adventures of the Hogwarts School set can take heart. [More]

Harry's Sorting Hat notwithstanding, are adult books old hat? *
While the publishing industry around the globe is enjoying the greatest success it has had in human history, specialty bookstores are closing down. [More]

Haunted by Haiti's ghosts *
Edwige Danticat's latest novel deals with the legacy of evil wrought by her country's terrible history, RAY CONLOGUE writes. [More]

Hay fever *
There's magic at the Guardian Hay Festival, the world's largest gathering of literary lovers. It cast its spell on Margaret Atwood, writes ROBERT MASON LEE, noting the author was downright playful during her appearance [More]

Hey Nostradamus: The massacre motif ***
Douglas Coupland's new novel draws on the memory of the tragic shooting at Columbine High School. And he's not alone. Other novelists and filmmakers are daring to go there too, CAROL TOLLER writes [More]

Hipster history surprisingly straight *
However authorized their beginnings, many histories end up as unauthorized. The historian is attacked by grumpy peers and, as the years pass, his work is dismissed as racist, or eurocentric, or naive, and a new authorized version is embraced. The disclaimer here is a reference, presumably, to George Bowering being a novelist and poet rather than a historian. [More]

Hollinger overstated circulation figures *
Hollinger International Inc. said Tuesday an internal probe has revealed that circulation figures at its Chicago Sun-Times newspaper have been overstated over the “past several years.” [More]

Hollinger sells Telegraph Group *
Newspaper publisher Hollinger International Inc. has sold Telegraph Group Ltd., which includes Britain's Daily Telegraph, to the Barclay twin tycoons in a $1.3-billion US deal. [More]

Immigrant Blues: Fish out of water ****
Even in the former Yugoslavia, poet Goran Simic was something of an anomaly, a Bosnian Serb who took a Muslim bride. But it is only here and now, in his adopted Canada, that he begins to contemplate fully his role as an outsider in verse. [More]

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL HARRY POTTER FANS *
A notice to Coquitlam purchasers of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from Raincoast Books. [More]

Intent on beating the Bushes *
Writer Brian Preston hopes that his serialized, on-line satirical novel will convince the cute Bush P (son of J, nephew of W) not to run for the White House, SANDRA MARTIN says. [More]

Iris Murdoch's library goes on auction block *
Four years after Iris Murdoch's death, her husband is selling the nearly 1000 books collected and annotated by the late author over six decades, auctioneers said Monday. [More]

Iris Murdoch: Her library speaks volumes *
Four years after her death, Iris Murdoch's books are on sale. In their well-thumbed pages are bus tickets, flowers, and touching inscriptions from those she loved [More]

Jack McClelland tribute: A writer's best friend (1) *
Tributes continued to pour in yesterday for Jack McClelland, who died Monday after a long illness. In this first story, Berton, Mowat and Atwood remember a 'unique' publisher, with a great talent for publicity and a passion for books, who inspired fierce loyalty in his writers. [More]

Jessica Lynch has $1-million story *
Jessica Lynch has struck a $1-million (U.S.) deal for a book that will tell the story of her capture and rescue in Iraq. But questions remain over how much she remembers.
Read original Jessica Lynch hoax exposé story from May, 2003: BBC exposé says rescue of U.S. Army private faked [More]

Jewish Book Festival writers' workshops (1) *
Sunday, November 27th, 2005, 1:00 p.m., Vancouver, BC [More]

JFK Jr., wife living apart before fatal crash *
John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn, were having marital problems and were living apart when they died in an airplane crash in July 1999, a new book claims. [More]

Jonathan Raban: A stranger in Seattle ****
Acclaimed British author Jonathan Raban still doesn't feel at home after 13 years in the Pacific Northwest, but that's actually helpful to a writer who has always felt like an outsider, he tells ALEXANDRA GILL [More]

Joy Fielding: Lost in celluloid dreams *
Best-selling author and one-time actress Joy Fielding tells SANDRA MARTIN about her latest novel, a mystery set against the drama of Toronto's film festival [More]

Judge denies Fox TV's attempt to block book *
A U.S. federal judge denied Fox News Channel's request Friday for an injunction to block humorist Al Franken's new book, whose title mocks the Fox slogan "fair and balanced." [More]

Karla publisher sues Random House *
The Montreal publisher of a controversial book about serial killer Karla Homolka is suing Random House of Canada for alleged copyright infringement. [More]

Kavalier and Clay: My love and I had words, and then it was all over **** 1/2
Falling in love with a book in the summer is a bit like falling in love with a girl in summer. As I recall. [More]

Krakatoa author: 'I still marvel at things' ****
There are few subjects that aren't of interest to the magpie mind of author Simon Winchester. ALEXANDRA GILL discusses his book on Krakatoa, a first love in Canada and his famous mentor [More]

Libraries need to mind their own business *
They should leave feng shui and grief counselling to others, and expand on what they do best -- the collection and dissemination of information. [More]

Lies and the Lying Liars: Judge denies Fox TV's attempt to block book sales *
A U.S. federal judge denied Fox News Channel's request Friday for an injunction to block humorist Al Franken's new book, whose title mocks the Fox slogan "fair and balanced." [More]

Lisa Moore: Saved by the poster-perfect whales *
I knew houseguests were coming. I knew because I invited them. I said, "Oh, stay with me, please." [More]

Living History -- Hillary Clinton's book due out *
After laying out a seven-figure advance for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoirs, her publishers are counting on seven-figure sales. [More]

Local rock critic, Greg Potter, recovers from paralysis *
Local award-winning freelance writer Greg Potter, known for his best-selling books and his acerbic reviews of film and music, is recovering at North Vancouver's Lions Gate Hospital after emergency surgery that may have saved his life. [More]

Loose lips tell us Bay St. is about to get 'Franked' *
ERIC REGULY dishes on how ex-Globe seat-mate became front man in magazine takeover [More]

Lord and Lady Cross of Black Harbour: TROUBLE IN XANADU *
As Conrad Black's empire crumbled this week, everyone wondered if he and Lady Black could go on enjoying the lifestyle to which they've become so richly accustomed. What kind of lifestyle? We thought you'd never ask. Today, ALAN FREEMAN and GAYLE MacDONALD tote up His Lordship's pleasures -- and the bills that may soon come due. [More]

Lord Black's art of investing stirs controversy *
The appropriateness of Hollinger buying the Roosevelt papers is being questioned as the press baron pens FDR's biography [More]

Low points in Cancon *
Waving the white flag for cheesy TV, Celine Dion and navel-gazing Canadian writers [More]

Lucy Maud provision fades out *
An obscure but controversial clause -- the so-called Lucy Maud Montgomery provision -- in an otherwise popular legislative bill has apparently met a demise that's rife with almost as many questions as its birth. [More]

Lynn Coady: A case of made-in-Canada writer chill *
Last summer, south of the Canadian border -- in the land of racial profiling and the proposed Patriot Act -- friends of Ontario writers Marsha Boulton and Stephen Williams were horrified at what they were hearing. The couple had made an impromptu trip to New York, not so much out of a burning desire to see these old acquaintances but, they explained to their friends, to "escape the persecution." [More]

Lynn Coady: The real horror of Stephen King *
Perhaps you've heard: The novel is dead. The written word is obsolete. Gen Y'ers are immune to the charms of the printed page and in thrall to the demon High Tech. English professors across North America have noted — sometimes in despair, but more recently, resignation — that today's undergraduates simply can't process a written concept as readily as they can one that's illustrated by, say, a particularly salient clip from The Matrix: Revolutions. [More]

M.G. Vassanji awarded Giller Prize for fiction *
M.G. Vassanji is the winner of the $25,000 Giller Prize for his novel The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. Mr. Vassanji, who won the first Giller award ten years ago for The Book of Secrets , beat out four other contenders for this year's prize. [More]

Macho, macho mags *
For years, U.S. men's magazines have served up a testosterone-packed diet of fast cars, cool gadgets, sophomoric humour and barely clad babes, ALEXANDRA GILL writes. Canadian men could only watch with envy. Until now... [More]

Maclean's at the crossroads *
On the eve of its centenary, the once-venerable newsmagazine faces sagging circulation, low staff morale and a fierce fight for advertising dollars, MICHAEL POSNER writes. [More]

Madonna tries a different kind of bedtime story *
This week the international publishing trade has witnessed an unprecedented event. Thanks to the speed and reach of contemporary technology, a book was published in more than 100 countries and 30 languages simultaneously on Monday, with an initial print run of a million copies. [More]

Major shake-up at Homemakers, Canadian Living *
A reorganization effort at two of Canada's largest women's interest magazines has resulted in the dismissal of Homemakers editor-in-chief Dianne Rinehart and Canadian Living publisher Debbie Gibson. [More]

Man pleads guilty to Harry Potter theft *
A printing plant worker pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing pages from the forthcoming Harry Potter novel. [More]

Manga mania comes to the West *
Japanese comics and graphic novels are no longer just a niche market in North America. Manga is flooding into bookstores thanks to girls' buying power [More]

Margaret Atwood: 'I left Ottawa in a packsack' *
MARGARET ATWOOD talks about her early life experiences, after delivering Carleton University's Kesterton Lecture last month. [More]

Mark Morton: A scholar's linguistic history of smut *
Mark Morton spent nine months researching the origins of English words about sex, he tells MICHAEL POSNER, to come up with that rare kind of academic treatise that people might actually read. [More]

McCaughrean chosen to write Peter Pan sequel *
Children's author Geraldine McCaughrean has been chosen to write the official sequel to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, the London hospital that holds the copyright to the classic work said Sunday. [More]

Michael Ignatieff: Writer, thinker, action man ****
Michael Ignatieff is back with a new novel, RAY CONLOGUE writes, a result of 'intellectual post-traumatic shock' he suffered after witnessing the horrors of Bosnia [More]

Mick Foley: Wrestling with his muse *
Mick Foley, known as Mankind on the WWE circuit, tells REBECCA CALDWELL that giving birth to his three books was more painful than being brutalized in the ring [More]

Microsoft researchers dream big *
What if your computer could read the newspaper for you and tell you just what you needed to know? What about 1,000 newspapers? [More]

Mike Newell to direct new Harry Potter movie *
Mike Newell, the British director of Four Weddings and A Funeral will direct the fourth Harry Potter movie, Warner Bros. Pictures announced on Sunday. Filming will begin on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in April. [More]

More Potter, Rowling hints *
Harry Potter may be set to grow up. . . [More]

More turmoil at troubled NY Times *
Pulitzer-winner may quit over freelancer question, SIMON HOUPT reports [More]

More Yellow Dog: The dog days of Martin Amis *
While the fierce satire Yellow Dog has met with some biting criticism, RAY CONLOGUE finds the renowned author isn't about to stop holding 'the wicked up to ridicule' [More]

Motherhood's last taboo *
First came Chick Lit, those ditzy novels about giggling "girls" of 35 who couldn't pay their credit card bills, or find a guy, or whose stiletto heels got stuck in a sidewalk grating and they fell off their shoes flat onto their faces, which used to be their fortune but were now bleeding and broken. They were washed up, just like Chick Lit, which is long gone. [More]

Murder most monosyllabic *
RAY CONLOGUE talks to the king of crime, Elmore Leonard, about his craft. [More]

Nadine Gordimer: *
Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer reminds critics that the new South Africa has had only "one bare decade" to make change, writes STEPHANIE NOLEN. [More]

Nancy Drew's new assignment *
The heroine detective is back in a new book series, 74 years after her debut. [More]

Nature via Nurture: A genetic truce *
Are humans hard-wired to behave aggressively? Y chromosome could be the culprit in war." Like all of us, the British biologist and popular-science writer Matt Ridley has heard such pseudo-explanatory claptrap too often, hence Nature via Nurture, his attempt to explain why recent discoveries in the life sciences tell us as much about how experience shapes us as about genetic influences. [More]

Neal Stephenson: The long and short of him *
Neal Stephenson, the writer lionized by the cyberset, is a man of few words in person, a self-described introvert, in fact. The same, however, can't be said of his books. [More]

New Frank editor promises satire, pranks *
Frank magazine is ushering in the new year with the naming of a new editor. Journalist Kim Honey has been appointed to helm the magazine starting in January. "I want to poke fun at people, make pranks and roast all my enemies," Honey said. [More]

New York Times to end paid Internet service *
The New York Times Co. said on Monday it is ending its paid TimesSelect Web service and making most of its website available for free in the hopes of attracting more readers and higher advertising revenue. [More]

Non-fiction sweeps Trillium awards *
It's a fact: Non-fiction is finally triumphing over its traditionally sexier cousin, fiction, evident yesterday when non-fiction books swept the Trillium Book Awards, Ontario's pre-eminent literary honours. [More]

Oates harvests fresh delights from Garden ****
But the reworked novel is not the first case of literary history being rewritten [More]

Olivia Goldsmith, 54 *
Bestselling novelist who launched the get-even genre of women's fiction, dead of complications from cosmetic surgery. [More]

Once upon a time in the Story Seminar *
I used to be ashamed of some of my film preferences, but thanks to one Robert McKee, I now hold my head high. Here it is: I thought The Mummy was awesome. Pirates of the Caribbean rocked. When I heard they were doing a sequel to the first Charlie's Angels movie, I drooled a little. However, I do have enough critical discernment to state that Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle was unmitigated compost. Once, I might not have possessed the tools to explain to you why I might find Boneheaded Hollywood Confection a pleasure, but its seemingly identical counterpart, Cynical Special Effects Orgy II an inducer of mock gagging noises. The answer can be summed up in one word: Story. [More]

Ondaatje unveils book prize *
This literary award is a little different in that it embraces both fiction and non-fiction, SANDRA MARTIN writes [More]

One day turns 100 *
With ritual sausage-eating, and a breakfast sponsored by Guinness, Dublin leads the way as fans in 60 countries doff their bowlers to James Joyce's Ulysses and its hero, Leopold Bloom, whose story unfolded a century ago. REBECCA CALDWELL investigates. [More]

Oprah picks classic to restart book club *
Oprah Winfrey was sitting under an oak tree in California last summer, reading John Steinbeck's East of Eden and loving it, when she realized that just telling a few friends about it wouldn't do. [More]

P.D. James: A spot of murder with your tea? *
At first she seems sweet as a shopkeeper who hopes you'll make a purchase. But the mystery writer soon reveals a mind sharp as a cleaver, and makes it clear she's watching you as much as you are her [More]

Pakistan 'has the stench of the apocalypse' *
Bernard-Henri Lévy, France's 'rock star' philosopher-journalist, traces the killing of reporter Daniel Pearl to high levels in Pakistan -- a U.S. ally that's a far graver threat than Saddam's Iraq, he tells CHRISTOPHER DREHER in New York City [More]

Paperbacks for Summer Reading *
Alison Gzowski's selction of your 2003 summer's best bets... [More]

Pepper replaces Gibson at M&S *
Venerable Canadian publishing company McClelland & Stewart is shaking off its dust jackets with the announcement that Doug Pepper will replace Douglas Gibson as the company's new publisher and president, effective May 31. [More]

Pony up: Taking wagers on some new editors-in-chief *
Now that my good friend John Honderich has departed the Toronto Star, the newspaper his family ran for more than 50 years, the man who effectively displaced him, publisher Michael Goldbloom, is looking to fill the other title Honderich had arrogated -- editor-in-chief. [More]

Portrait of the Writer *
Why is an Irish novelist obsessed with Henry James? RAY CONLOGUE reports. [More]

Potter fan tries to conjure up Nobel Prize for J.K. Rowling *
Joanne Rowling may have more riches and fame than any other writer in history, but one thing has always eluded her: critical acclaim. Now one man is trying to change that by nominating Rowling for the ultimate critical accolade: the Nobel Prize for Literature. [More]

Potter magic -- Book breaks sales records *
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final volume of J.K. Rowling's all-conquering fantasy series, sold a mountainous 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in the United States, according to Scholastic Inc. [More]

Potter magic for Amazon.ca *
Pottermania has struck at an opportune time for Amazon.ca. [More]

Potter mania could negatively affect kids: psychiatrists *
We at evalu8.org disagree, but as Harry Potter, a young man now, enters into a chilling saga of revenge and dark magic, psychiatrists wonder if the Potter-crazy children the world over are ready for this sudden and violent transition into a hitherto unknown world. Wonder what position on this subject Scientolojester and shrink-hater Tom Cruise would take? [More]

Potter's magic sets new publishing records *
More than 8 million may not be enough. [More]

Public potty for Potter *
After hitting the dance floor with wand-waving witches the night before, 32-year-old Patrick Rider sweated out a hangover Sunday buried in the pages of his new Harry Potter book. [More]

Publicizing Lizzie (Grubman): Confidence meets commonness *
Lizzie Grubman's notoriety has made her a hero among a certain set, writes SIMON HOUPT. Now she's selling the secrets to success [More]

Publisher pulls Honderich's book on Sept. 11 implications *
A German publisher has dropped a British-Canadian philosopher's book dealing with the fallout of the Sept. 11 attacks because of recent statements by the author that appear to support Palestinian "terrorism." [More]

Publisher to bring Hogwarts magic to Hogtown *
Raincoast Books is bringing Hogwarts to Hogtown. [More]

Publisher wins injunction to keep Harry Potter plot secret *
Raincoast offers early Harry Potter book purchasers a deal they can't refuse! [More]

Raincoast halts domestic publishing program *
The Canadian co-publisher and distributor of the phenomenally popular Harry Potter series of novels is scrapping its domestic publishing program and blaming the appreciation of the Canadian dollar for that decision. [More]

Random House axes editor-at-large Pearce *
Random House of Canada has eliminated its editor-at-large position, effectively firing John Pearce from his job as one of Canada's most influential publishers. [More]

Real stories for real teens *
We were prepared for eternal darkness and bone-numbing cold. We'd shut down the summer house around the bay and hit the malls for school supplies. Then the radio said it would be 30 degrees on the weekend. A Newfoundland heat wave in mid-September. There's snow in Calgary, the radio said. I threw back my head and laughed. The radio said, I wouldn't laugh too loud if I were you. Okay, I'm sorry for Calgary, but quick, grab the bathing suits and picnic coolers -- everybody back in the car. [More]

Recalling those days of 'Evil Nose Powder' *
It's doubtful Bob Ezrin will be getting one of those sycophantic video tributes from singer-songwriter Murray McLauchlan at the Juno Awards ceremony in Edmonton in April -- if the contents of McLauchlan's 1998 autobiography Getting Out of Here Alive are any indication. [More]

Report on Business magazine grabs three awards *
The Globe and Mail's Report on Business magazine took three honours at the 26th annual Canadian National Magazine Awards held Friday at Toronto's swanky Carlu lounge. [More]

Reporter fabricated stories, USA Today finds *
USA Today has found that former star foreign correspondent Jack Kelley made up substantial portions of at least eight stories and plagiarized numerous quotes and other material from competing publications. [More]

Richler makes it into McGill *
Author's works don't get the academic study they deserve, symposium organizers say. [More]

Robert Bringhurst: Water works, a Story of Floods *
They awe and terrify us, and as ROBERT BRINGHURST writes, floods are also myth incarnate. [More]

Robert Gottlieb: He made Bill behave *
Robert Gottlieb, possibly the world's most famous editor, turned Bill Clinton's notes into a bestseller. [More]

Rosie O'Donnell headed to trial *
Former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell is heading to trial with the publishers of her former magazine, Rosie, which closed down last year. [More]

Rowling plans midnight reading of new Potter book *
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling will give a midnight reading of the sixth book in her hugely successful series at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland to coincide with its publication, the writer announced Saturday. [More]

Rowling prepares for final Harry Potter book *
J.K. Rowling expects to have a busy 2006, "the year when I write the final book in the Harry Potter series." [More]

Rowling: Harry Potter will live to see another day *
Harry Potter novelist J.K. Rowling says her young hero will survive to the seventh book in her series about the young wizard, but refused to say whether he would reach adulthood. [More]

Rumours follow Gatenby's exit *
Abrupt departure of Harbourfront literary czar raises questions about future of authors' festival [More]

Saint-Exupéry's plane found *
A French scuba team has discovered parts of the missing warplane piloted by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince and one of France's most beloved writers, a French Air Force official said yesterday. [More]

Sandman: Not just a comic-book hero *
Neil Gaiman, author of the groundbreaking Sandman series, now frightens kids, including his own, LUMA MUHTADIE finds [More]

Saul Bellow, 89 *
Montreal-born writer 'invented a way of talking about what it meant to be inside the searing of these centuries' whirlwinds' [More]

Sawyer wins Hugo Award *
Canadian Robert Sawyer took home the best novel of the year prize at the 50th presentation of the Hugo Awards on Saturday night, the annual awards for science-fiction writing [More]

Scandal hits youngest author signed by Harper-Collins *
The debut novel of a Harvard University sophomore includes several passages that are similar to a work by another author published in 2001. [More]

Scholars finding odd new clues in The Scarlet Letter *
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter was the furthest thing from Richard Kopley's mind when the English teacher started working on what would become his first scholarly book. [More]

She crafted beauty out of the ordinary *
Death always comes too soon, but it crept up so quietly on Carol Shields, who died Wednesday night in Victoria, that even her family seemed unprepared. [More]

Shields's talents gained world acclaim *
International success came late to Carol Shields, but when it did, it came big time, in great, lifting waves. [More]

Smoked meat, cigars and Richler's oeuvre *
Organizers of a conference at McGill steer clear of a love-in and create an atmosphere the author himself would have appreciated. [More]

So, is Hillary lying or just stupid? *
the face of it, the central revelation in Hillary Rodham Clinton's "tell just enough but not too much" memoir is, simply, incredible. She wants us to believe that everybody in the world knew the truth about Monica but her. [More]

SOCIAL STUDIES -- Wednesday, November 5, 2003 *
A DAILY MISCELLANY OF INFORMATION BY MICHAEL KESTERTON [More]

Spoken Here...Last words? *
Only 30 people speak fluent Mohawk, but Manx is making a slow comeback. Montreal writer Mark Abley has travelled the world in search of the human stories behind dying languages, RAY CONLOGUE writes. [More]

Stan Lee: Captain Comics *
Like his heroes and villains, Stan Lee has taken some blows. But at 81, the man who helped create the Marvel universe is still going strong, ALEXANDRA GILL finds. [More]

Star-crazed editor abducted by Enquirer *
Bonnie Fuller, the Canadian-born editor who took Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and US Weekly to new sex-charged depths (and sales heights) during brief turns in the editor's chair of each magazine, is moving to a place it will be tough to take more down-market. [More]

Stephen King in hospital *
Stephen King was expected to remain in a Maine hospital on Thanksgiving as he recovers from pneumonia, a spokesman said. [More]

Stephen King wins literary award *
Stephen King,  master of the horror story and e-book pioneer, has received the National Book Award for lifetime achievement [More]

Steven Galloway: Excelling at Young Writer 101 *
A self-described 'stupid punk' from Kamloops, BC, finds himself with two acclaimed novels and a university job teaching writing. [More]

Strong year for books *
Year-2005 book sales up, but future isn't bright. [More]

Tales of a G-G Awards juror *
"I'll be glad when it's over," was Jack Rabinovitch's opening quip on Giller night last Tuesday, and now that it's over, he is perhaps not alone in this gladness. The Giller Prize seems to raise hackles nationwide. Even this year's host, the ever-subversive Mary Walsh, couldn't resist a faux-playful jab at the assembled "literati, glitterati and just plain ati-ati" as she referred to TO's big publishing playas. [More]

Tales of madness *
No ghosts or vampires inhabit Patrick McGrath's Gothic novels, writes RAY CONLOGUE. Instead, their most frightening aspect is the human mind. [More]

Tell No One -- the book behind the French movie (and backgrounder on Harlan Coben) *
Coben's books are set in and around New York and New Jersey, and some of the supporting characters in two series of novels have appeared in both. He is clearly a sports fan -- and more importantly, a knowledgeable HOCKEY fan. Copious reference to real-life sports figures dot his books. FINALLY, his books are coming to filmdom. [More]

Thank God, the Giller's got Mary Walsh to host *
When an event is aired live and simultaneously on the main network of CBC, a cable channel and a digital channel, it must be a very big deal. [More]

The real conspiracy of The Da Vinci Code (Garber commentary) *****
In the beginning, there was the book. And the book was The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown's juicy thriller involving the Holy Grail, violent sects, wild sex, a Vatican-sanctioned cover-up and, at its heart, the core belief that "almost everything our fathers taught us about Christianity is false." [More]

The case of the seized computer *
Marsha Boulton is best known as a Stephen Leacock Award-winning humour writer, but her latest book is taking her real life deep into crime-thriller territory, with many volleys and ripostes between her and the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney-General. [More]

The Concubine's Children: A cast of family ghosts *
To stage her novel The Concubine's Children, Denise Chong had to face down the memory of her grandmother. [More]

The Fuller effect and the perils of tabloid-ization *
Ooh, the celebrities are not keen on Bonnie Fuller, not keen at all. "She is the devil," Gwyneth Paltrow told me in London on July 16, while wearing frayed jeans, a white eyelet shirt unbuttoned here and there, and modish sport shoes. [More]

The googlewhacking goofball *
Dave Gorman blew a book advance travelling the world. Fortunately, he stumbled upon a bestseller, MICHAEL POSNER writes. [More]

The lives of Larry, and Daisy, and Jane *
Larry Weller is an ordinary guy born in the 1950s, who is adapting to society's changing expectations of men as he journeys toward the millennium. He moves through the spontaneity of the seventies, the blind enchantment of the eighties and the lean, mean nineties, to complete his quiet, stubborn search of self. Published in 1997, Larry's Party won the Orange Prize. [More]

The man with the ink-stained past *
He was once a rising star at the United Nations, writes PAUL WALDIE. Now, Cheickh Bangoura is fighting to clear his name in a legal battle that could change how courts view Internet publishing. [More]

The Myth of Ability: John Mighton, educational alchemist *
Does this Toronto playwright have the secret to turning dunces into fraction-cracking mathletes? As TRALEE PEARCE reports, his new book uncloaks the mystery [More]

The need for snarks and other literary beasts *
Martin Amis's new novel Yellow Dog is now available in Canadian bookstores, so you can judge for yourself whether it's as embarrassing as catching your favourite uncle masturbating in the school yard, to paraphrase one British writer, or a fairly successful piece of Swiftian satire, as it seemed to the reviewer who, with the dignified restraint so common among Canadian literary critics, evaluated it in these pages Saturday. [More]

The Polar Express (Garber backgrounder) *****
The Academy Award-winning team of Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump," "Cast Away") reunite for The Polar Express, an inspiring adventure based on the beloved illustrated children's book by Chris Van Allsburg (Jumanji). [More]

The Romantic: Raising a glass to the literary alcoholic ****
The Romantic, released in the spring of this year and long-listed for the Booker, is about the relationship between an alcoholic musician, Abel Richter, who drinks himself to death and the young woman who loves him. [More]

The smell of sour grapes *
Readers may remember with some bemusement the public bun fight last year between Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens over Amis's quasi-memoir, Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million. [More]

The Story of The Vancouver Stories *
Listel Vancouver Hotel partners with Raincoast Books to create a bestselling book of bedtime stories. . . [More]

The time it takes to be Swift *
It took seven years for Graham Swift to write another novel after his Booker Prize-winning Last Orders. That's what's needed to produce works 'true to my experience of not knowing,' he tells RAY CONLOGUE [More]

The Time Traveler's Wife: A first novel anointed by Brad and Jennifer ****
Talk about winning the literary lottery. The film rights to visual artist Audrey Niffenegger's first novel were snapped up by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston -- before publication, REBECCA CALDWELL writes. [More]

The trouble with à la carte critics *
In these pages last Thursday, Tarek Fatah asked me to remove him from the acknowledgments of my book, The Trouble with Islam. [More]

The writing on the wall? *
The end of The Report suggests tough times for magazines, GUY DIXON writes [More]

Thomson strikes deal for on-line tester *
Capstar to be combined with electronic publishing giant's learning division. [More]

Thousands of Harry Potter books stolen *
Thieves made off with a tractor trailer containing 7,680 copies of the new book, police said Tuesday. The truck was taken Sunday from outside a warehouse in Newtown-le-Willows, northern England, where the books awaited distribution for their 12:01 a.m. release on Saturday. [More]

Times gets new editor *
Maybe now The New York Times can get back to reporting the news instead of making it. The Times yesterday named Bill Keller to be its new executive editor, writing a calming epilogue for the drama that convulsed the newspaper this spring after a young reporter's plagiarism and fabrications led to a coup d'état that pushed Howell Raines out of the top job. [More]

Toronto writer wins Poe award *
Toronto writer Sylvia Maultash Warsh picked up an Edgar Allan Poe Award for her book Find Me Again at a ceremony held by the Mystery Writers of America Thursday night in New York. [More]

Translators drop off book fronts *
House of Anansi has stopped crediting translators on book covers in hopes of attracting new readers. The translators, RAY CONLOGUE writes, are not amused [More]

Trouble in the centrefold *
With Penthouse on its deathbed and Playboy possibly giving up nudity, the male rite of passage that was the dirty glossy magazine may not outlive Hugh Hefner. MICHAEL VALPY finds out what happened [More]

TV Guide Canada to become web-only publication *
The familiar one-time icon of Canadian publishing calls it quits in the "hard copy" arena. [More]

U.S. history book prize awarded to Canadians *
A U.S. children's book prize intended to celebrate American history has been won by a pair of Canadians. Author Peter Busby of Vancouver and illustrator David Craig of Mississauga, Ont., received the $10,000 (U.S.) prize for their book First to Fly: How Wilbur & Orville Wright Invented the Airplane. [More]

Up north, anonymous reviewers revealed *
'Reviewers' who sign their critiques only as “a reader from (fill in the city)” lost their anonymity this week when their identities were revealed on Amazon.com's Canadian website, Amazon.ca. (At least the reviews are genuine and unbiased on evalu8.org! [More]

Updike wins the 2004 PEN/Faulkner Award *
John Updike, already among the most honoured of contemporary American literary writers, has received yet another prize. He was named the winner yesterday of the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. [More]

Vassanji: 'I am a person who is at home in many places' *
REBECCA CALDWELL meets M. G. Vassanji, first winner of the Giller Prize in 1994 and on the shortlist for the 10th annual award (he subsequently won it, earlier this week). [More]

Western culture vultures spy eastern meat *
I want to start out by saying that this column was intended to be a celebration of western Canadian -- particularly West Coast -- magazines. It was geared, therefore, toward assiduous avoidance of all things Toronto. [More]

What rhymes with scurvy? *
'Y'have a writer's union in Canada?" Robert McKee interrogated his Vancouver audience last summer. There were coughs, mutters in response. Nobody wanted to answer him directly, because the screenwriting guru had betrayed a penchant for picking people out and yelling at them in the past hour. [More]

Why I like wireless writing *
Printed paper, as we know, is outdated. Text will be read on screens from now on. Film too is passé: It costs too much and the cameras are too heavy. Digital video is the way to go. [More]

Wild about Harry *
Presumably you are back home by now, having spent the night in line waiting for the midnight release of the new Harry Potter book. [More]

Will The Walrus float? *
The newest, and arguably richest, kid on Canada's magazine rack will need its namesake's thick skin to survive. Others ventured where The Walrus wants to go, MICHAEL POSNER writes, but few have made it and none got rich trying [More]

William Gibson's Pattern Recognition (Shaviro review) **** 1/2
William Gibson's new novel Pattern Recognition (which I have finally finished reading) is very likely the first work of literature to use "Google" as a verb (as in: "If you Google him, you'll find...). What's important, however, is not that Gibson is savvy enough to note how everyone's favourite search engine has entered the vocabulary, but rather the absolute ordinariness, or taken-for-grantedness, of this usage: it's a detail, precisely, that doesn't stand out in any way in the novel. And that is what makes it significant... [More]

Wolfe in co-ed's clothing *
Five years ago, at the age of 69, the author famous for his natty white suits slipped on a blue blazer and headed off to college. As he tells IAN BROWN, the resulting odyssey led to his latest novel, a tale of modern campus life bound to infuriate students, terrify their parents and incense right-thinking feminists everywhere. . . [More]

World writers pen creepy children's tales for anthology *
Midnight Lullabies proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders. [More]

Writers in a chain gang *
It's not surprising that when authors from across the country pen a collective novel, some literary fur will fly, MARY NERSESSIAN writes. [More]

Yale braces for Wolf attack *
Feminist author Naomi Wolf is accusing the eminent Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom of sexual misconduct more than 20 years ago when she was under his guidance as a senior in English at Yale University. [More]

Yellow Dog: Swiftian Amis right on target *** 1/2
By the time he published Gulliver's Travels in 1726, Jonathan Swift was presumed by many to be a misanthrope, a hater of his own species... [More]

Secondary Sites:
'Malicious strategy' cited in Sullivan case *
A news conference held four years ago by the heirs of Lucy Maud Montgomery was part of a malicious strategy to extract more money from Sullivan Entertainment, the company that produced two Anne of Green Gables films in the 1980s, court was told yesterday. [More]

All the news that's fudged to print *
The New York Times sacrificed its top editor for the wrong reasons, says Harper's publisher JOHN MacARTHUR. If you think Jayson Blair was loose with the facts, look at how the Times covered Iraq [More]

Blood & Guts: A Short History of Medicine: Grand rounds *
Although I have not the slightest expertise in matters medical, I come from a family replete with doctors, dentists and nurses, do not flinch at the sight of blood and take great pleasure in an hour immersed in the internal intricacies of The Merck Manual of Medical Information . [More]

Bogus Lawsuit Over The Da Vinci Code *
Following the example of many less-talented typists who imagine their work has been ripped off by real writers who actually write best-selling books, Lewis Perdue, author of a couple of lesser-known books on similar themes says he's going to file his own lawsuit soon. [More]

Cat's Crossing: Ding, dong bell, puss has gone to hell *
How much trouble can a stray cat cause?" is the somewhat panic-inducing question this first novel asks -- and readers will be forgiven if they imagine Cameron is lining up behind other broadcasters-turned-writers such as Stuart McLean, anxious to get into a town-hall meeting where he can narrate the wild and wonderful antics of That Darn Cat of his. [More]

Conrad: our pinstripe piñata *
People aren't knocking Lord Black because he disappointed shareholders. His sin was that he acted rich, spoke big and didn't wear khaki, says financial journalist JOHN DIZARD. [More]

Consciousness: A User's Guide -- Consciousness confronts itself *
Know thyself!" is the ancient Delphic command that Socrates adopted into the heart of Western philosophy. It is answered these days by countless books on consciousness, for we are conscious beings. Of these books, Adam Zeman's must be among the most thorough -- and the most readable. [More]

Da Vinci fad decodes travel profits *
The success of the best-selling thriller The Da Vinci Code has inspired people to travel to Europe to see the artwork and architecture that the characters see in the novel. [More]

Death in the family *
The Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian public policy, awarded at a lavish dinner last week, is an award I have, in the past, unkindly dubbed "The Giller for Nerds." But I have also defended it on the grounds that, although almost all of these books are virtually guaranteed to go unread except in specialized circles (academics and bureaucrats), they are important contributors to the whither Canada? debate. [More]

Diana's 'cad' confesses *
Diana's one-time boyfriend James Hewitt boasts in a forthcoming television documentary that the Princess of Wales was a good lover and concedes he's a philanderer, a cad and worse. [More]

DNA: The Secret of Life -- Not so elementary, my dear Watson *
If the American biologist James Watson should someday get the three-volume life he deserves, I would be particularly happy if the first volume more or less hurries through his early years... [More]

Doctor Earle's diagnosis *
Singer Steve Earle, no stranger to rehab himself, has a few prescriptions for an ailing America, ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN writes [More]

Don't paint Muslim people as Nazis *
It is not often that a person thanked in the acknowledgement of a book turns around and announces publicly, "Thanks, but no thanks." And yet this is precisely what I am about to do in the case of Irshad Manji, the author of the newly released book The Trouble with Islam. [More]

Dr. Seuss: Green eggs and subversion *
In a world of Dick and Jane readers, Theodor Seuss Geisel created delicately coded indictments of rampant consumerism, nuclear proliferation and the evils of Nazi Germany. SARAH MILROY tells the story of a man who helped teach millions of young fans to read between the rhymes. [More]

Drawn and quartered *
They're funny until they get mad. Editorial cartoonists in the United States are at war with each other. DOUG SAUNDERS describes the battlefield [More]

Edith Wharton's: The house of mirth *
Edith Wharton's 'first real home' shares the pleasures of its famous owner [More]

Elisabeth von Hullessem: Dubious dinner date on eBay *
Fraudster tried to auction off a chance to dine with her and hear tall tales of crime. [More]

Estates' rights in Canadian copyright re-examined *
MP seeks to strike controversial 'Lucy Maud Montgomery provision' [More]

Excuse me, your grammar is dangling *
No column I have written in the past three years has provoked as much response as did the two I published this year on common grammatical errors. I have said outrageous things in this space: I expected to be pilloried for my views on drug use; I expected to be publicly executed for my views on marriage. I had almost no response of any stripe about those things. My inflammatory rages fell into a deep silent void, and no echo came back. And yet, I have a stack of letters on my desk -- I mean a real stack, about six pounds' worth -- of painstakingly handwritten letters from people (many of them retired teachers) who are thinking about grammar as much as I am, and thinking about it, apparently, all the time. It is impressive, and refreshing, to see how much passion is tied up in this pursuit. [More]

Failing Our Kids: How We Are Ruining Our Public Schools -- Why Jonnee kant spel gud *
A major difficulty in giving prominence to education is that it is seldom newsworthy. Although everyone knows education is important, it never seems to attain the priority of a police search for a criminal or a health crisis such as the need to contain SARS. [More]

For undistinguished reporting *
Reporter Walter Duranty turned a blind eye to one of the greatest atrocities of the 20th century. For that, his 1932 Pulitzer Prize should be revoked, says Ukrainian-Canadian LUBOMYR LUCIUK. [More]

George Plimpton dies at 76 *
George Plimpton, the self-deprecating author of Paper Lion and a patron to Philip Roth, Jack Kerouac and countless other writers, has died. He was 76. [More]

Harry Potter: The witching hour draws near *
Wild about Harry? Tonight's your night, LUMA MUHTADIE writes. The fifth instalment in the Harry Potter series is being released at midnight-madness parties in bookstores from coast to coast [More]

Harry Potter: Worth the wait -- and the weight *
'Phoenix starts dark and just gets darker,' says reviewer STUART DARRACH-COTTICK , 14. 'Still, it's not depressing, and that's cool' [More]

Is this a flair for fictions? *
A mysterious blond organizer of an allegedly bogus writers' conference is alleged to have other secrets, some of which made it into her novel. [More]

Jacob Two-Two meets his cartoon debut *
Richler's celebrated book comes to animated small-screen life in a new YTV series to air tomorrow morning [More]

Jon Stewart's pre-Oscar host biography *
Jon Stewart's career profile before he hosted the 2006 Oscars. [More]

Jonathan Safran Foer: 'I hit the book lottery' *
Jonathan Safran Foer wears the wunderkind label he earned for his debut novel lightly, SIMON HOUPT writes. The best part of fame, he says, is that the world is more receptive [More]

Knight Ridder Web sites hit by attack *
The Web sites of Knight Ridder's 31 daily newspapers slowed to a crawl or were made inaccessible by a denial-of-service attack that lasted several hours. [More]

LEIDA FINLAYSON 1971-2003 *
The project was the brain-child of a therapist who suggested it would provide a diversion during cancer treatment [More]

Literary awards announce finalists *
The finalists for the Great Annual Literary Awards -- the most lucrative night in Canada's literary awards scene, with $133,000 distributed over nine prizes -- were announced yesterday by the Writers' Trust of Canada. [More]

Martha Stewart profit plunges by 86% *
Hard to separate firm from founder's legal problems [More]

Martha's launching a new magazine *
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. will begin regular publication of Everyday Food, a recipe magazine, with the September issue, following a six-month test run. [More]

Media snakes eat their own tails *
Who reads profiles of people in magazines? Who buys Vanity Fair and People? Who wants to read gossip about the personal lives of people they don't know? What kind of short-attention-span, superficial ninny wants to read about what's in a newscaster's closet rather than about ideas and events? [More]

One more reason for a bedtime story *
Whether they realize it or not, most Canadian parents are already playing a crucial role in helping their children learn to read, judging from the results of a survey conducted by Ipsos-Reid for Fisher-Price. Ninety-five per cent of parents with children 12 and under read to them on a regular basis -- an activity many literacy experts say helps to boost literacy skills, particularly during a child's preschool years. [More]

Oprah to keep talking for two more seasons *
Talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey has signed up to host her ratings-topping show for another two seasons, her production company said this week. [More]

SARS in HK: On the inside looking in *
In a city ravaged by SARS, CHARLES FORAN has been teaching a course on Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. It's a strange climate, he writes, in which to explore themes of heroism, loss and the triumph of the public good. [More]

Seagram sale: 'This is a very painful process' *
As debt-ridden Vivendi puts the 700 photos of the Seagram collection on the auction block, even those running the sale seem distressed by the breakup, SIMON HOUPT writes [More]

Seeing through Glass (Stephen Glass, that is) *
A journalist infamous for fabricating stories has written a novel about a reformed story-fraud artist. Is it 'contrition as a career move,' as one burned editor calls it, or true redemption, SIMON HOUPT asks [More]

So, you wanna be a writer? *
In a series of imaginary letters, novelist and writing teacher CAROLINE ADDERSON ponders a system that churns out authors who churn out books that no one buys. [More]

Some finances revealed in Green Gables suit *
Sullivan Entertainment revealed some of its finances in court yesterday to dispel allegations that the company was withholding money from the heirs of Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery. [More]

The 'Lit-fest': Poets rush in where Atwood fears to tread *
The really famous authors who attend the spring and autumn literary festivals never show up at the hospitality suite, and I'll tell you why. Simple economics. They can afford to pay for the minibar in their room, whereas the rest of us non-Atwoods and non-Ondaatjes are forced to suffer one another's company in the name of free beer and endless bowls of corn nuts. Thus begins my exposé of the seedy underworld of that most genteel of book-season rituals, the lit fest. [More]

The boys are all right *
Worried about your son's reading skills after this week's discouraging OECD report? Experts say there's no need to panic, reports JOHN LORINC. You can even let him keep his comic books -- they're good for him [More]

The missing link *
Studies show that an old-fashioned educational tool -- the school library -- affects students' marks more than we think, writes JOHN ALLEMANG [More]

The Navigator of New York ****
Is this novel going to collect major awards and park itself on bestseller lists for months? [More]

The Republic of Love: A quirky Valentine (Lacey review) *
What's to love about Deepa Mehta's story of winter romance? Well, there's charisma, chemistry and sweet fantasy. What's not so endearing is the broad comedy. [More]

The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake (review): 'The boldness of this low man' *
Author Samuel Bawlf demonstrates that Francis Drake, best remembered as an Elizabethan privateer, explored the northern Pacific coast of North America in 1579 -- two centuries before James Cook and George Vancouver, who are usually regarded as the first to accomplish that task. [More]

Unfit young could face heart attacks *
Fat, sedentary Canadians will likely suffer more illness than parents, study suggests. [More]

Wagering against Conrad Black? 'Don't bet the company' *
Lord Black has been nipped by regulatory 'rottweilers' before, notes biographer RICHARD SIKLOS. Will that hurt him now? [More]

We're all with stupid *
Several new books and a hit documentary are offering a fresh idea of stupidity, as a force, not a failing. Why are so many smart people suddenly examining the dumb, asks TRALEE PEARCE -- is it the Bush Zeitgeist? [More]

Why so timid on TV drama? *
Broadcasting is a privilege, not a right: If you want to launch a newspaper tomorrow, you can pretty much go ahead. Print your news on paper and sell it if you can. If you sell some advertising, good for you. Nobody is going to stop you. If you want to launch a TV channel, it isn't so easy... [More]

Will Susanna Clarke follow in the footsteps of J. K Rowling? *
Although it has not yet been published in her native Britain, Susanna Clarke's first novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, has been sold in 23 countries. A fantastical tale of practical magic, reviewers' copies have reportedly sold for more than $200 on eBay. Today, we meet the woman behind the hype. . . [More]