September 2014, In My Notebook (Giveaway too!)

Check out this giveaway opportunity for Philippa Gregory’s new novel about lady-in-waiting Margaret Pole’s unique view of King Henry VIII’s stratospheric rise to power in Tudor England.

Simon & Schuster, 2014

This corresponds with the lists in my notebook which detail the books in her series. The first that I read was (oh, horrorors!) actually the third volume in The Cousins’ War series.

That didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of it, but I have yet to go back to fill in the gaps so that I can enjoy her latest, The King’s Curse, which is the sixth volume. (There is a chapter excerpt here.)

The Cousins’ War:

• The White Queen (2008)
• The Red Queen (2010)
• The Lady of the Rivers (2011)
• The Kingmaker’s Daughter (2012)
• The White Princess (32013)
• The King’s Curse (2014)

Philippa Gregory has a habit of pulling the women of history onto centre stage and making their stories. She has also written The Wideacre Trilogy (Wideacre, The Favored Child, Meridon) and The Tudor Court series.

The Tudor Court:

• The Constant Princess (2005)
• The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)
• The Boleyn Inheritance (2006)
• The Queen’s Fool (2003)
• The Virgin’s Lover (2004)
• The Other Queen (2008)

Giveaway Details: There are two opportunties via Simon & Schuster Canada.

First, for two tickets to the Philippa Gregory event. Leave a comment with your full name and indicating your interest in attending the Al Green Theatre in the Miles Nadal JCC in Toronto Ontario on Monday, September 22, 2014 at 7pm.

Next, for a copy of The King’s Curse. Leave a comment indicating your interest in winning the hardcover novel. If you win, you will need to provide me with your name and address. (Canadian residents only.)

If you are interested in both the pair of tickets and the book, please indicate this in your comment.

Entries will be received until midnight (EST) September 18, 2014 and I will email winners on September 19, 2014.

Also in my notebook for September?

Film inspired by Rawi Hage’s novel Cockroach

Notes about “The Underground”, a short film based on Rawi Hage’s novel Cockroach.

“A visceral portrayal of an Iranian man’s struggle to fit into Western culture, The Underground is a new short film by critically acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Michelle Latimer, which is set to have its World Premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Araz, an Iranian refugee in Canada, experiences North American life by imagining himself as a cockroach. Having fought to escape the warzone he once called home, and destined for a fresh start, Araz arrives in Canada to find that North American life is not what he had dreamed of. In a struggle to overcome poverty and isolation, he turns inward in hopes of experiencing the life that eludes him.

Deeply disturbed by how ethnic assimilation remains at the root of so many humanitarian disasters, Writer/Director Michelle Latimer was fascinated by the prevalence of the cockroach as a symbol in genocidal propaganda, spanning multiple time periods, geographic regions and cultures.

“This story illuminates how the persistent notion of a human underclass impacts our humanity”, says Latimer.  “Informed by my Indigenous heritage and inspired by Rawi Hage’s courageous novel, I wanted to challenge and address this idea, while further exploring the issues of identity, loss of language, and assimilation.”

The Underground was Produced by Tara Woodbury and Kerry Swanson, and Executive Produced by Paula Devonshire and Danis Goulet with support from the National Screen Institute’s Drama Prize Program.”

Hosted by Write Reads

And more scribblings?

A list of the short story collections that I read which fit into the Summer of the Canadian Short Story challenge:
David Helwig and Sandra Martin’s edited collection 84: Best Canadian Short Stories,
Samuel Thomas Martin’s This Ramshackle Tabernacle,
Richard van Camp’s edited collection Coming Home,
Andrea Routley’s Jane and the Whales,
Janine Alyson Young’s Hideout Hotel,
Alice Munro’s Runaway,
Gilles Archambault’s In a Minor Key,
Kathy Page’s Paradise and Elsewhere, and
Mary Sodertrom’s Desire Lines.

I dabbled in others, but I didn’t even get to pull Lorna Goodison’s By Love Possessed, Austin Clarke’s Choosing His Coffin or Clark Blaise’s A North American Education off the shelves. As usual, the list which seems to matter more is the list of books remaining, the stories which I still hope to read in 2014.

Hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings

Mystery
Suspense
Thriller
Dark Fantasy
Gothic
Horror
Supernatural

Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above.

That is what embodies the stories, written and visual, that we celebrate with the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril event.”

And, there are two simple rules:

1. Have fun reading (and watching).
2. Share that fun with others.

You can sign up here. And then you will have a list in your notebook too. Although of course my list has more to do with dreams than reality. I figure I’ll read about 6 or 8 titles and maybe 2 or 3 of them will be from these lists. I am a moody reader, and the titles which appealed to me when I made these lists might not be the ones which insist on being read when I actually sit down with a book in hand.

Anyone else thinking “GingerSnaps”?

Creepy Canlit for Grown-ups
Kelley Armstrong’s Visions (second in Cainsville series, following Omens)
Todd Babiak’s Come, Barbarians
Linwood Barclay’s No Time for Goodbye and Safe House
Joey Comeau’s The Summer is Ended and We Are Not Yet Saved
Nick Cutter’s forthcoming novel, The Deep
A.S.A. Harrison’s The Silent Wife
Matthew Heti’s The City Still Breathing
Emily Pohl-Weary’s Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl
Andrew Pyper’s The Guardians
Michael Rowe’s Enter, Night
Robin Spano’s Dead Politician Society
Russell Wangersky’s Walt
Michael Winter’s The Death of Donna Whalen

Group R.I.P. Read
Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House

Creepy Canlit for Teens
Kelley Armstrong’s Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1)
Leah Bobet’s Above
Erin Bow’s Plain Kate, Sorrow’s Knot
Charles de Lint’s Under My Skin (Wildlings #1)
Maggie de Vries’ Rabbit Ears
Hopkinson, Nalo Sister Mine
Evan Munday’s The Dead Kid Detective Agency, Dial M for Morna
Kenneth Oppel’s This Dark Endeavour (Viktor Frankenstein #1)
Shane Peacock’s Eye of the Crow (Boy Sherlock Holmes #1)
Edeet Ravel’s Held
The Seven Series, an interconnected set of seven mysteries
Drew Hayden Taylor’s The Night Wanderer
Richard Scrimger’s Zomboy

How about you? What bookish notes have you been making lately in your notebook?

Have you read any of the books discussed here? Are some on your TBR?