Kathleen Molloy

I’ve bitten into the first erotica book of my CanLit challenge. Bitten, I say because this is vampire erotica. It is also a romance novel, a scientific mystery / conspiracy, and characters with exotic names such as Rio, Valian, Simaron, and Chancella.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. I checked the author’s website and discovered that Susan Phelan has two other books in her The Blood Tapestry series and the other two covers feature shirtless hunks. Go to Susan.phelan[dot]com and also take a look at this Canadian author’s blog.

I was quick to nab this book while at Audreys Books in Edmonton in August. I asked the ever-friendly staff to recommend local erotica authors. They sent me to the Gay and Lesbian corner which was loaded with Ivan Coyote et al. I asked for some hetro erotica, by Canadian authors. There was all sorts of smut written by everyone-but-us.

I made my way to the front desk and asked for local authors – period. Turns out, there is no section for local authors, however, there are a few shelves for authors that had come by for a reading or signing and left some autographed copies behind. Eureka! But 3/4 of the books were by Toronto authors.

I snooped and snooped and snooped and presto discovered a signed copy of Susan Phelan’s The Cure – complete with local author sticker and sex in almost every chapter.

And now I offer it up in a new contest. By October 31 please tell us about the WORST sex scene in CanLit or in a Canadian story. Stories by Canadians don’t count if the sex hasn’t occurred in Canada. Short stories count – of course – and heck, why not poetry too? Ok, bad Canadian sex in Canadian books. Let’s hear it.

From Canada Day to Canada Day, will you read and review at 13 Canadian books?

Starting July 1st, 2009 and ending July 1st, 2010, John Mutford and friends challenge you to read 13 or more Canadian books.

For this 3rd Canandian Book Challenge I intend to read 13 Canadian erotica works. But I need a bit of direction and off the top of my head I can’t think of a single title, never mind 13 separate authors. HELP.

Please make your suggestions, all suggestions welcome.

Remember, the author must be Canadian and if the work is set in Canada even better!

Last night I began reading Marian Engel’s last published work. After each short story I lept into the next. “This will be the LAST one before lights out” I said at page 83 and then twenty pages later. The Tattooed Woman is a beautiful collection of stories about middle-aged women coming unhinged.

Last night I began reading Marian Engel’s last published work. After each short story I lept into the next. “This will be the LAST one before lights out” I said at page 83 and then twenty pages later. The Tattooed Woman is a beautiful collection of stories about middle-aged women coming unhinged.

I’m a title junkie. Give me a book with a good title and I’m hooked. When Mrs. Cohen at the Wakefield library mentioned Our Lady of the Lost and Found a few years back, I put it on my list of books to hunt down.

I scooped it up last month at the Singing Pebble in Ottawa. I have the Harper Perennial version which has Diane Schoemperlen’s bio, an interview, background on the book, and excerpts of newer works. I read the author interview first.  It was very interesting to read about the hours of research she did squirreled away in libraries uncovering records of Virgin Mary appearances around the world. I should mention here that this is the story of a writer that is visited by the Virgin Mary. Mary is tired of being Mary and decides to take a little break so she picks a no-fuss writer to put her up while she puts up her feet. That’s the whole story.

What makes the story work is the way Diane Schoemperlen describes the boring daily events of an ordinary Canadian writer such as making lunch and checking for dust. The boring writer has an extraordinary visitor and tries to make her feel ‘normal’ in a boring Canadian routine. They scratch lotto tickets. They head off to the mall where it turns out that Mary has her own debt card under the Greek name Mary Theotokos (Mother of God).

Schoemperlen details centuries of Mary appearances from around the world. What I found fascinating is the research she cramped in so that she could make mention of the world-wide appearances. If some people can see the image of Jesus in a plate of spaghetti on a billboard in Georgia why not Mary on their front stoop?

GG winner Diane Schoemperlen’s  Our Lady of the Lost and Found another CanLit title for the Canadian Book Challenge.

With all the blog chats about what makes a feminist blog a Feminist Blog I pose the question “What makes a feminist”. It’s curious how definition can hold us hostage.

In Ontario author Eric McCormack’s novel First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women we have a protagonist who is haunted by nightmares of women marching in protest. These nightmares plague him through his life and affect all of his relationships to the point that he is carried off by a downward spiral of despair.

 The story isn’t dire. Don’t get me wrong. The fellow just happens to have a string of bad luck wherein almost everyone he loves somehow dies under bizarre circumstances. Father figures and sailors play big roles as he floats around the world trying to out run his nightmares.From the website:First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women is the story of Andrew Halfnight, whose life—part dream, part nightmare— begins with a mother’s tragic choice and ends with a lover’s understanding. In between he experiences tempests at sea, relatives who kill for love, and lovers who sacrifice their bodies, all the while unknowingly moving ever closer to the central mystery of his, and all existence.Another Canadian title to book cross.

What fun. Now that Prime Minister Harper is back on the Hill I wonder if Yann Martel will continue to help build the PM’s library.

What is Stephen Harper Reading?

Are you reading what Harper is reading?

Dewey Monster is. Dewey has created a challenge to read all the books sent to Harper by Martel.  Over the next couple of years you can read along too!

http://deweymonster.com/?p=936

I dove into a collection of short stories for my 11^th book of the 2^nd Canadian Book Challenge.  Under the banner Rafales, this collection comes from a local publishing house in Gatineau (old Hull) called Vents d’Ouest. The title Jeux d’adresses separates out the different “jeux” (games) in our lives from children’s games to forbidden games. Naturally, my favourite section was Jeux de mots!

And here’s something fun… my copy is signed by author Louise Bouley. The dedication is to “Suzanne” with “Gros bisous” (big kisses) and an invitation to explore the imagination of Outaouais.

With that in mind, I am offering up this copy as a prize to a reader who shares their favourite image from  Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne Takes You Down”. Mine is: Only drowning men could see him.Post a comment to tell us yours.  I’ll pick a random winner in November. Suzanne is here: 

http://www.lyricsdomain.com/12/leonard_cohen/suzanne.html

And for readers that want a crisp copy of Jeux d’adresses, shop directly from Vente d’ouest for more local francophone authors.

Jeux d’adresses, edited by Julie Huard, Michel-Rémi Lafond, François-Xavier Simard

Ventes d’ouest

http://www.ventsdouest.ca/Livres.asp?IDL=99

You know Mark Frutkin from Fabrizio’s Return. You may have already snatched up his new quasi-autobiographical journal Erratic North: A Vietnam Draft Resister’s Life in the Canadian Bush.

Frutkin is my 10^th west Quebec author and the whole time I read Slow Lighting I wanted to eat Spanish oranges.

Slow Lightening is the perfect title. The story is about a university student caught up in political unrest, something he didn’t create, can’t control, and can’t escape – like lightening. It’s like watching distant lightening slowly creeping toward you … and when you’re under it … KABOOM!

Frutkin mixes humour with politics; a cocktail I adore.

Find Frutkin’s books here:

http://www.markfrutkin.com/books.html#slow

Here is Frutkin’s interview with the Ottawa Citizen on Draft Resister:

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=a751c3d6-c7cd-4b81-a938-cf3407e9de03&p=1

Kathleen Molloy

And so the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Sept 15-19 passed and what have we learned?

·         Everyone loves the 2^nd Canadian Book Challenge.

·         Everyone loves the 2^nd Canadian Book Challenge’s founder John Mutford.

The idea for Book Blogger Appreciation Week was to allow book blogging book lovers to interview each other so that readers could get the dirty scoop on them.  See what Scrub-a-dub-tub scrapped out from behind John’s ears…

http://thereadingtub.blogspot.com/2008/09/interview-with-john-mutford.html