SEPTEMBER BOOKMARKS
Fall Brings New Excitement To Curiosity House…..
There is something special about this time of the year. Maybe it is the changing colours around us. Perhaps the beginning of the school year stirs up an excitement for new experiences and discoveries. This is an exciting time for the book industry. New selections for the Fall and Winter season are being released every week and nominations are being made for the long and short lists of most major literary prizes. Look for new offerings from Jane Urquhart, Salman Rushdie, Terry Fallis and Alexander McCall Smith for adults along with great new titles from Suzanne Collins, Dav Pilkey, Hugh Brewster and Robert Munsch for kids and young adults.
We have two exciting author events scheduled for September. Venture capitalist and author, Andrew Heintzman will be joining us for a literary lunch at Chez Michel, where he will discuss his recent book and its connection to two well-known local agricultural entrepreneurs. Author Cathy Buchanan will be dropping by for an author signing and book discussion in anticipation of the Georgian Bay Reads event which will take place in late October.
On the arts scene, September also brings the the Purple Hills Studio Tour and Curiosity House is pleased to be a sponsor and a participating gallery in this exciting annual event. More than 40 resident and guest artists, representing a wide variety of disciplines, will be showcasing their best work. We will also be participating in our third Gallery Crawl event with our partners from other local galleries. We’re really looking forward to September at Curiosity House. Please join us as we celebrate the excitement.
M Vince, Editor
What’s On in September?
Friday Sept. 3, 6:00 to 9:00 pm
Friday Night Gallery Crawl
Creemore Inspired
Back by popular demand! Curiosity House Books & Gallery, Maplestone Gallery, Moyaboya and the Mad and Noisy Gallery present our new art exhibits for September with a special apres art menu at Chez Michel (reservations suggested.) Our past Gallery Crawl events have been great successes. We are sure that this September’s event will be outstanding.
Saturday Sept. 4, 10:00 am to Noon
Special Story Hour
Winnie the Pooh at the
Creemore Farmers’ Market
Who’s the bear most loved by both adults and children? The answer to that is simple. It’s Winnie the Pooh!
As part of the annual Children’s Farmers’ Market, kids and adults alike are welcome to join Miriam at the Station on the Green for some stories, a craft and a chance to meet Winnie the Pooh in person. It’s sure to be a wonderful time.
Saturday Sept. 4, 2:00 to 4:00 pm
Artist’s Opening Reception
Kate Esplen
Curiosity House is pleased to announce the return of Kate Esplen to the gallery for September. Join us at our opening reception and take the opportunity to meet this talented artist
Sunday Sept. 12, 2:00 to 4:00 pm
Author Signing and Talk
Cathy Buchanan
Cathy Buchanan is one of the new faces on the Canadian fiction scene. Her stories have appeared in many of Canada’s most respected literary journals. Her debut novel, The Day the Falls Stood Still, is Creemore Echo publisher Sara Hershoff’s selection to defend for the Clearview Public Library, at this year’s Georgian Bay Reads event in late October. Please join Cathy on Sunday Sept. 12 for an informal discussion and author signing.
Sunday Sept. 19, 12:00 noon
Author Lunch at Chez Michel
Andrew Heintzman
In The New Entrepreneurs, author and venture capitalist Andrew Heintzman introduces us to the innovative business leaders who are at the forefront of the green economy in forestry, water and energy, transportation and agriculture. He profiles extraordinary individuals who are ahead of the curve in development of cutting-edge, clean-tech products and innovations for export to a rapidly expanding global market. One chapter of note profiles local resident and entrepreneur, Brent Preston and his wife Gillian Flies, whose highly successful agricultural enterprise, The New Farm, is located in Maple Valley.
Andrew Heintzman will be the featured guest at an author lunch which will be held at Chez Michel at 12:00 noon. Tickets are available at Curiosity House and are $35.00 per person (taxes and gratuities included). Reservations are necessary, as space is limited. This is sure to be a fascinating and informative event. We hope you will join us.
New Steig Larssen Biography to Be Released this Fall
Have you finished reading all three books in the Millennium trilogy? Are you curious about the author who brought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to life?
In September, Penguin books will be releasing a biography The Man Behind the Girl: The Life and Untimely Death of Stieg Larsson. Written by Kurdo Baksi, a friend and colleague of the Danish writer, this book details Larsson’s career as a journalist and crusader in the battle against racism and for democracy in Sweden. With fascinating details about his personal background, his vices and his strong personal convictions, Baksi answers the questions a multitude of Larsson’s fans have already asked, and gives some clues about who provided the inspiration for his now-immortal characters. This book is due to be released October 5, 2010. Pre-order your copy today!
More New Fall Reads…..
(Reviewed by Catherine Randall)
There are so many good books arriving in the store it is a challenge to keep up but I’ll share a few of the good ones I have read. The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of his friend Marilyn Munroe is a novel by Booker finalist Andrew O’Hagan. Maf, short for Mafia Honey, was given to Marilyn Munroe by Frank Sinatra who bought him from Natalie Wood’s mother who brought dogs from England to Hollywood to sell. That part is true. The story is told entirely by Maf who is very smart, can tell what humans are thinking and can hear what birds, butterflies, bees and bugs are saying. This is a very funny book, very well written, and takes one back to the early 60s when America was in the middle of the Camelot years – prosperity, fame, booze and drugs all from the view point of Maf.
Room was a compelling if at times disturbing read. Emma Donoghue’s latest novel has already been nominated for the Man Booker this year and is generating a lot of buzz. A 26 year old woman, kidnapped when she was 19, and her 5 year old son, Jack, have been locked in an 11 x 11 foot room with only a skylight as a connection to the outside, and the visits at night of Old Nick. Jack tells us his story of nights spent sleeping in the wardrobe and his days watching TV, reading and playing games with Ma. They eventually get “outside” but Jack has no understanding of outside except what Ma has tried to tell him once he turned 5. We struggle with Jack as he adapts to life outside, bombarded with sensory overload, sun, stairs, showers, cars and all other parts of life we don’t even think of. Ultimately, this is a story of the love between a mother and son.
The Death of Donna Whalen is a just released novel by Michael Winter and he is calling it “documentary fiction” because he has used a true crime incident in St John’s 17 years ago as his plot, changed the names and blended several of the characters and used only the words of the witnesses from the actual criminal trial to create his novel. It is fiction but something that happened to real people. Winter likens his writing in this book to an updated version of Truman Capote’s method. I haven’t finished the book yet but it is an interesting read so far as you begin to piece together the different characters and possible motives, all the while knowing that this actually happened.
We have lots to suggest regarding the new releases and some of the bestsellers of last season are now coming in paperback. Come in for a visit soon.
Great Young Adult Selections For Fall
(Reviewed by Miriam Vince)
I have been meeting with our publisher representatives over the past month, discussing new Fall titles for children and young adults and I am very impressed with what I have seen. New offerings for young adults include Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins’ final book in the popular Hunger Games trilogy, and the tenth and final installment in the 39 Clues series Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix.
Shane Peacock continues his extremely popular Boy Sherlock Holmes mystery series with Vanishing Girl and Kathy Reichs makes her debut as a writer for young adults with Virals, a suspenseful mystery novel featuring Tory Brennan, niece of the fictional forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (of Bones television and adult novel fame). Watch for this to become a popular series for young adults.
Silver Birch Award winner Robert Paul Weston has a new novel coming out this Fall, which is a chilling departure from the whimsical verse of his award winning Zorgamazoo. Dust City is a young adult urban fantasy fairy tale set in a bleak town of the same name – a rundown gritty metropolis where the quest for fairydust controls the lives of all who live there. The advance reviews have been glowing for this title and I’m anxious to read the publisher’s galley while I am away on vacation.
I am really looking forward to chatting with our young adult customers this Fall. I believe we are going to have lots of great suggestions for their reading enjoyment. In our October newsletter we will take a look at new offerings for children and middle grade readers.
What’s Happening at the Book Club?
Wednesday
September 8,
2:00 to 3:00 pm
Our book club will be meeting on Wednesday Sept. 8, to discuss The Reluctant Fundamentalist. This fascinating novel, from author Mohsin Hamid, is sure to spark some lively discussion at our monthly meeting.
Curiosity House Book Club Selections Oct. 2010 – Jan. 2011
The Curiosity House Book Club has finalized its list of the books we will be reading from October to January. Our selections are:
Wednesday, Oct. 13
Silence of the Songbirds
Bridget Stutchbury
Non-fiction
Wednesday, Nov. 3
Cutting For Stone,
Abraham Verghese
Fiction
Wednesday, Dec. 1
The Boy In the Moon
Ian Brown
Non-fiction
Wednesday, Jan. 5
The Bishop’s Man
Linden MacIntyre
Fiction
Curiosity House Knitting Group
Our Knitting Group meets every Wednesday from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.
Our Knitting Group will be shifting into high gear as they start knitting those warm scarves, mittens and sweaters for Fall and Winter! Our ever-expanding needlework section has great ideas and tips for knitters of every skill level. If you are looking for a particular needlework book that we don’t have in stock, we are happy to order it for you.
Please call us at 705-466-3400 or email us for more information.
New David Suzuki Book Club Selection
The most recent selection for the David Suzuki Foundation Book Club is Laurence Packer’s, Keeping The Bees: Why All Bees Are At Risk and What We Can Do To Save Them. For more information about this fascinating book and to learn more about the David Suzuki Foundation Book Club follow this link:
http://bookclub.davidsuzuki.org/home
Purple Hills Studio Tour
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Saturday September 25 and Sunday September 26
Over its 20-year history the Studio Tour has become a popular fall event for area residents and visitors. Timed to coincide with the spectacular fall colour display, the tour offers scenic drives along the edge of the Niagara Escarpment,along with the opportunity to visit local artists at work in their own studios. Kate Esplen
is the featured artist at Curiosity House for this year’s Studio Tour. She will be at Curiosity House on Saturday and Sunday to meet with visitors and discuss her body of work.
In the Gallery – October to December 2010
Oct. 2 – Nov. 4
Darla Anderson
Opening Reception
Saturday Oct. 2
Nov. 5 – Dec. 2
Elizabeth Greisman
Opening Reception
Saturday Nov.6
Dec. 3 – Jan. 7
Featured Artist Cynthia Marsh and Our Annual Christmas Group Show
Opening Reception
Saturday Dec. 4
Quips, Quotes & Trivia
A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.
~Edward P. Morgan,
Newspaper Columnist and Television Commentator
