Over at Maclean’s, national affairs correspondent Charlie Gillis is performing a public service of sorts by reading Julie Couillard’s tell-all memoir My Story, which hits stores today, and live-blogging his impressions.

The verdict so far (Gillis is about halfway through): It’s a surprisingly entertaining read and even at times “heartfelt.” The juiciest bits are about Couillard’s affair with her biker boyfriend Gilles, though Gillis has little patience for her disingenuousness about his criminal activities.

So imagine poor Julie’s surprise when he lets on that [Gilles] did time for robbery when he was 19. She’s glossing, here, to put it mildly. He never sold drugs, never “had [a] firearm,” but “after a while” she figured out “Gilles was a moneylender.”

A moneylender? Er no. Fannie and Freddie are moneylenders. Gilles was a loanshark.

As this is being posted, Gillis is embarking on day two of his reading. Here at Quillblog, we’re highly anticipating the chapters about Couillard’s ill-fated affair with Maxime Bernier.

In our final blast of Sunday photos, you’ll find: Libris nominee Jeremy Tankard, Jeffrey Alford, Anne Collins, the massive line for Giller-winner Elizabeth Hay (and a smiling Hay, too), one attendee’s four bags of loot, Mary Swan, champagne at the M&S booth, Sean Cullen, and more.

(more…)

Alan Twigg, author of Full-Time: A Soccer Story (McCLelland & Stewart), presents the jersey that was featured on the book’s cover to Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame representative and Canada Soccer Centre co-founder William Hoyle in Vaughan, Ontario. (Photo courtesy of M&S.)

Barbara Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp, co-authors of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (HarperCollins Canada), answer audience questions during a This Is Not a Reading Series event at the University of Toronto’s MacMillan Theatre on May 27. (Photo by Chris Reed.)

Author Pasha Malla (left) and Globe and Mail columnist Carl Wilson attempt to out-casual each other at a This Is Not a Reading Series event for Malla’s first book, The Withdrawal Method, on May 28. (House of Anansi Press). (Photo by Chris Reed.)

Roy Innes signs his book The West End Murders (NeWest Press) in front of a full house at a special event held on Gabriola Island, B.C., in May. (Photo courtesy of NeWest Press.)

On hand for an event to launch Road Grill (McArthur & Company) at Toronto’s Union Station on May 28 are, from left, Sheldon Speers of Knight TV, publisher Kim McArthur, co-author and CFL Hall of Famer Matt Dunigan, and Erin Rooney from S.C. Johnson, makers of, um, Ziploc bags. (Photo by William C. Smith of the Toronto Irish News/Courtesy of McArthur & Company.)

Here are some photos from recent book events:

Montreal author Ibi Kaslik launched her rock-themed second novel, The Angel Riots (Penguin Canada), at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto on April 1. The event was presented by This Is Not a Reading Series. Above, Kaslik (left) is interviewed onstage by EYE Weekly’s Sarah Liss. (Photo by Melodie Kwan)

Andrew Whiteman, a.k.a. the Apostle of Hustle, plays some tunes at Kaslik’s launch. (Photo by Melodie Kwan)

Abigail Carter outside the Capital Theatre in Port Hope, Ontario, where Furby House Books hosted an event for her memoir, The Alchemy of Loss (McClelland & Stewart), on March 28. (Photo courtesy of M&S)

Andrew Feindel, Alexander Herman, and Paul Matthews launched their book, Kickstart: How Successful Canadians Got Started (Dundurn Press), at a lavish do at Casa Loma in Toronto on April 2. Above (from left): Feindel, Herman, and Matthews dress sharp and display Kickstart. (Photo courtesy of Dundurn Press)

Lawyer Eddie Greenspan, one of the interviewees in Kickstart, signs a copy. (Photo courtesy of Dundurn Press)

The March issue of Quill & Quire is now in stores and in subscribers’ hands. Our cover story: The CanLit 30, Q&Q’s list of 30 people in the book industry who most influence what gets published, bought or read. Also up are looks at Mary Swan, duelling Mordecai Richler bios, the mystery of Inger Wolfe, and more. Plus: a small publisher’s first-person account of what Canada Reads meant to his company, the Spring Announcements (listing biblio info for 900 new titles), and reviews of 40 new titles by André Alexis, Jack Todd, Carrie Mac, Pamela Porter, Erna Paris, and more. The full table of contents is after the jump.

(more…)

Speculation rages on as to the true identity of M&S’s mystery novelist Inger Ash Wolfe. Here’s a sneak preview of Q&Q’s own piece in the brand-new March issue (which went to press a couple of weeks ago) and here’s Vit Wagner’s piece in the Toronto Star.

Q&Q’s own guess is still Linda Spalding, though she tells Wagner that it’s not her. And as Wagner notes, someone has been mailing anonymous leaflets fingering Michael Redhill; Wagner writes that House of Anansi got one. So did we here at the Q&Q office, and we also know of at least one other publisher that did. We’re not buying it, though – smells like a misinformation campaign, or simply a wacky game.

The special Books of the Year issue of Quill & Quire is now en route to stores and mailboxes. It contains the magazine’s annual selection of the titles that mattered the most over the past 12 months – 10 adult and five children’s. Among the authors who made the cut are cover stars Sean Dixon, Kenneth Oppel, and Marina Nemat – to see the rest, you’ll have to wait for the issue.

Also in December’s pages are a panel discussion on Margaret Atwood’s CanLit classic Survival, with Noah Richler, Lynn Coady, and Philip Marchand; a report on the Christian publishing and bookselling market; a look at new publisher Kunati Books; an essay by Leilah Nadir on writing about Iraq; and more. The full table of contents is after the jump.

(more…)

It’s participation time. With the Scotiabank Giller Prize coming up in less than a week, we’d like to ask our readers (a) which book should win the prize, (b) which one will win, and what the hell, (c) which book should be in the running but isn’t.

You can weigh in on the comments field – and if you’re worried about offending some author/friend/colleague, remember that our blog allows for anonymous comments. Or you can pick a pseudonym like “Darth Reader.”

And here’s a reminder as to the five Giller nominees:

• Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay (M&S)
• Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (M&S)
• A Secret Between Us by Daniel Poliquin; Donald Winkler, trans. (D&M)
• Effigy by Alissa York (Random House Canada)
• The Assassin’s Song by M.G. Vassanji (Doubleday Canada)

Two-time Giller winner M.G. Vassanji launched his new novel, The Assassin’s Song (Doubleday Canada), within the cramped-yet-stylish confines of Xacutti in Toronto’s Little Italy on Sept. 10.

Andrew Pyper chats with Doubleday Canada publisher Maya Mavjee.

Camilla Gibb (left) and The Globe and Mail’s Sandra Martin (right) flank Doubleday’s Martha Leonard.

Author and Random House art director CS Richardson stares down Christine Innis of Doubleday.

A Doubleday trifecta with Martha Leonard, Lara Hinchberger (who is decamping for M&S), and Tim Rostron. (In the background, Richardson hasn’t yet blinked.)

The man of the hour, M.G. Vassanji, stands before the merch table. (Note: the loyal and trustworthy Q&Q camera was dropped and broken shortly after this picture was taken, in a clumsy, Clouseau-esque move on the cameraman’s part.)

Agent Bruce Westwood holds down the fort with Westwoodians Carolyn Forde, Alison Hardacre, and Chris Casuccio.

McClelland & Stewart toasted the launch of photographer and journalist Paul Watson’s memoir Where War Lives at Crush wine bar in downtown Toronto.

M&S president and publisher Doug Pepper chats with Maclean’s writer Brian Bethune.

Lisa Fender, a producer for CBC’s The Hour, shares a laugh with M&S editor Chris Bucci and publicist Ruta Liormonas.

Paul Watson, flanked by M&S editors Trena White and Bucci.