Quill and Quire

by Q&Q Staff

Maybes and might-have-beens

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Usage guides published before 1980 or so don’t even mention it, and the authors of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage (1989) call it “mysterious” and “confusing,” and confess themselves “stumped” by it. The persistent ... Read More »

November 3, 2003

Unshakeable

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Ever since Q&Q launched its Bestseller Survey in April 1996, author James Redfield’s spiritual opus, The Celestine Prophecy, has ruled supreme, placing consistently in the top five for fiction with the exception of three months ... Read More »

November 3, 2003 | Filed under: Book news, Events

Letters

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Welcome, IngramTo the editor:Re: “Ottawa won’t impose copyright solution,” (Aug. 1997):I recently faxed an order to Germany on a Wednesday at 3 p.m. EDT. I received the order the following Tuesday. On a Tuesday morning ... Read More »

November 3, 2003

Tie-ins

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• Michelle Pfeiffer joins forces with Jessica Lange and Jennifer Jason Leigh for Pulitzer Prize-winner Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres. Jessica Lange also appears, with Elizabeth Shue, in Honoré de Balzac’s Cousin Bette – a ... Read More »

November 3, 2003

Fax

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SPROUTING PROSE• Not content with the brilliance of her prose and plot, Carol Shields’ editors suggested that the author’s latest novel, Larry’s Party, was a tad misleading in parts. Shields’ first alleged error was slipping ... Read More »

November 3, 2003 | Filed under: Book news

Visions of Susanna

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I was talking recently with a young woman who was biographically inclined. (By “young,” I mean about 35; that is, she didn’t remember panty girdles, stockings with seams up the back, having to wear white ... Read More »

November 3, 2003

Avoiding the homework hounds

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Anthologies are popular on senior high school curriculums – for good reason: they offer students choice in their reading material, and give teachers the opportunity to cover a variety of writing styles and genres.But in ... Read More »

November 3, 2003

How bad it is, how bad

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Canadian writers continued their winning streak on the international literary prize circuit, recently capturing second spot overall and several “dishonourable” mentions in the 1997 Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest. Sponsored by San Jose State University’s English ... Read More »

November 3, 2003 | Filed under: Book news

Grim peaks

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Into Thin Air, journalist Jon Krakauer’s personal account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster, has hit the number one spot twice on Q&Q’s Bestseller Survey since its release in May. But the book’s success has ... Read More »

November 3, 2003

Letters

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Initiative should be applaudedTo the editor:I was delighted to see the article in your June issue about the ambitious marketing campaign HarperCollins will be undertaking this fall for new books by Marilyn Bowering, Lawrence Hill, ... Read More »

November 3, 2003