Bone & Bread a "Best Book" Editor's Pick at Amazon.ca and Salty Ink

Before I completely forget to neglect to commemorate this amazing fact from the beginning of the summer here, I wanted to write about Bone and Bread appearing on this list of Amazon.ca's Top 25 Books of the Year So Far, along with nine other Canadian books (and a lot of high-profile titles).  See the full list of editor's picks here.

AND over at Salty Ink, Chad Pelley named Bone and Bread as one of "the Finest 4 Novels From the First Half of 2013 (and then some).  Hurray!!  Um, anytime I am somehow mentioned in the same breath or list as Lisa Moore, I am basically ecstatic. 

(AND apologies to friends on Facebook, for whom all this news is a duplication and possibly an annoyance.) 

Last night I had an anxiety dream about some talks I may need to prepare for some upcoming events, which I guess means I should just...start preparing for them. The weekend was both social and home-improvement-oriented, both things which were necessary and enjoyable, but it meant that there was not a lot of time left for reading or writing. Where are the people with the perfect work-life balance? Let's feed them banana cake until they tell us all their secrets.

Also, today the new Arcade Fire single is out! I couldn't resist listening to the leaked version, and I'm pretty excited. 

book blogger love

Another haphazard recapping of some of the lovely reviews of Bone and Bread that have cropped up over the internet. One of the best things about stumbling upon these reviews is finding new great book blogs to read! 

 

From Mrs. Q Book Addict:

"As a fellow Montrealer, the atmosphere of this novel really brings it to life. Nawaz writes about a Montreal I know, and live in. This has not always been the case when I’ve read other books that are set in Montreal..[...].. I highly recommend this book, especially for those who have a sister. I believe the story would be even more powerful. Great for book clubs!" (excerpted...click for full review) 

Mrs. Q is a tremendous reader, by the way. Check out her impressive 2012 and 2013 reading lists if you want to feel unexpectedly guilty about how much television you're watching.

From Lindy Reads and Reviews:

"Bone and Bread moves back and forth in time, revealing a unique family and a strong sisterhood bond. I found Nawaz's portrayal of attitudes towards immigration and a plural society in contemporary Quebec particularly compelling." (excerpted...click for full review)

(Lindy, by the way, reads over 250 books a year! That would be a feat in itself, but taking the time to write about what she reads is next-level amazing.)

And this is actually a review of Mother Superior on Buried in Print, which I was so elated to see, and it even includes a brief outline of each story that somehow manages not to give anything away. There is nothing more gratifying than a reader who gets it... I think this is at the heart of why writers write.

Buried in Print's review of Bone and Bread therefore brings into play what happens in "Bloodlines," the story from which it developed, and I was really curious to read what impression the novel would make on somebody who already knew the characters.

"Fundamentally Bone and Bread is about loss, and the connections that one makes in the face of loss. But, which loss? A father. (A husband.) A mother. (A friend.) A sister. (A lover.) An aunt. (A father.) Some of these relationships are more parenthetical than others, but there is always an absence, so lasting an absence that it becomes ever-present, like the cross on the mountain in Montreal.... What makes us good? Which relationships define us? What does the effort of concealment truly cost? How fervently can we shape our own reality? What kind of sacrifices truly yield new choices?" (excerpted...click for full review)

Buried in Print is the web page of another insightful (okay, fine, I'm biased, but I really think so!) and voracious reader and there is so much good content to get lost in here. 

Hearing from even one reader is amazing (hell, just having one reader is nothing to sneeze at), so I feel really lucky to be able to find out people's impressions after picking up the book.

cover girl, take two

Photo by Terry Byrnes

 

I'm really thrilled to be featured on the cover on the latest issue of the Montreal Review of Books! You can read the full profile and review here. I'm so grateful for the prominent coverage of the book, as well as for the thoughtful review and interesting chat with fellow writer Ami Sands Brodoff. Not all interviews are created equal, and it is always a pleasure to speak with someone who is a careful reader...and who isn't afraid to ask real questions.

the art of the elegant review

For all that we ("we") decry the lack of quality criticism in Canada, there have been and continue to be people who have written some really stunning reviews.  

In a Facebook exchange with an old friend, I mentioned that an old acquaintance of ours had always reminded me of Zenia in The Robber Bride, or rather, that when I read the novel, Zenia reminded me of her.  Something about chaos, I wrote, or falseness.  

But then I wondered how accurately I was remembering the book (the acquaintance, well, I'm not sure it matters how well I remember her), so I looked it up and found a review by Joan Thomas, who is a lovely person as well as an amazing writer.  She was a books reviewer and columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Winnipeg Free Press for many years, so the quality of the review was no surprise --- and yet it was.  It's so good.

Her piece in Books in Canada is not some kind of boldly negative exposé (that's at least what some people (not me) mean when they wish we had more "real" reviewing), but an insightful and elegant take on the novel in light of Atwood's oeuvre.   Plus it has lines like this: 

Every sober-sided history is at least half sleight-of-hand: the right hand waving its poor snippets of fact, out in the open for all to verify, while the left hand busies itself with its own devious agendas, deep in its hidden pockets.

And this is just slipped in there...mere throwaway lines in the middle! 

Granted, most newspapers can't spare the column inches for lines like these if they want to cover even a fraction of the worthy books to write about, and Books in Canada no longer exists.  There are not many forums remaining for mid-length and long reviews in Canada.  (Though I happily await correction or elaboration on this point.)  I suppose it could be what the internet is for now, though as a forum I think it lends itself a little better (for the most part) to brief reviews, star ratings, Likes and +1s.  (My love of the internet in helping to point the way to wonderful new books probably requires its own post.)

I'm happy that Joan is busy writing novels instead of reviews, but I know that books sections everywhere are poorer for it.  For that matter, I'm happy and grateful for all writers and readers who take reviewing seriously.  

It's time-consuming, it's almost thankless, it's difficult, and there are always going to be people who disagree.   We're so lucky that fearless books columnists are doing this day after day, week after week!   

Hug a critic, if you see one. 

Classy Alice

My review of the new Alice Munro collection, Too Much Happiness, is in today's Montreal Gazette and online here.

In case you don't feel like clicking through, I might as well tell you that I loved it, and I was really thrilled to have it assigned to me! (As absolutely ludicrous and surreal as it seems to for me to be reviewing the Master, but that is sometimes the way things work.)

The Globe has the excellent Anne Enright reviewing it, though she only has a few paragraphs about this collection, the rest of the review taken up with more general (but very eloquent) praise.

McClelland & Stewart also announced yesterday that Alice Munro requested Too Much Happiness not be submitted for consideration for the Giller, a prize she has already won twice, in order to leave the field open for younger writers. I think that this is an extremely classy move, though if you read the comments on Bookninja here and on CBC here you will find some other opinions (e.g. it's an arrogant move to assume her book will win, it taints the prize for anyone now who does win, etc., etc.).

how to read a review

I'm sure I'm not the only writer who "reads" a review by scanning for criticism. You find the damning sentence(s), memorize the critique, let each of your inner editors (I've decided there are a whole host of them, each with her own manic quirks) take turns weighing it for truth, accept it as fact or something less ego-shattering, and keep writing. Usually, any critique will give you something you can use to be a better writer. The rest of the review, however complimentary, feels less vital and always, ALWAYS less believable.

But it occurs to me that the positive parts of a review might be worth paying attention to (if still dangerous to actually, say, believe). You want to know what sticks with people, what moved them. What works.

I've vowed that the next review I read (assuming there is a next one), I will try and take away at least one positive thing.

Maybe.

more good news

I forgot to mention that I received a statement for my short-story collection sales, along with a (very small) cheque. A cheque! This means that the book has earned out its (very modest) advance! I *think* this means that I am officially not a liability for my publisher, which is a good feeling.

I also reviewed Ali Smith's new short-story collection for the Gazette a few weeks back. It made me want to reread The Accidental, which I remember thinking was perfect when I read it. I recently decided to add in another voice to my novel-in-progress, and I remember this being an example of a novel that really manages to pull off different perspectives. (Although I do feel a bit guilty re-reading something when there are so many new books I want to read. Not guilty enough to not do it, mind you.)