The Authors Book Club

Connecting readers and authors in Canada
  • Welcome!
  • About Us
  • Blog Feed
  • Invite An Author
  • Resources
  • FAQ
  • News, Events, etc.
  • Fiona Reads
  • Writers In Trees
  • Contact
    • Plots & Pandemic: Virtual Meet & Greet with Dennis Bock

      Posted at 9:00 am by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Oct 4th

      Join us on October 18, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET to meet and chat with author Dennis Bock. We will begin with a short reading followed by a group discussion and Q & A.

      Register for this exclusive free event by emailing us at info@theauthorsbookclub.ca. Spacing is limited to 12 guests.

      Dennis is an author, travel writer, book reviewer, and creative writing lecturer. His books have been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He has been a writer-in-residence at Yaddo, the Banff Centre, Fundación Valparaíso in Spain, and Santa Maddalena in Italy. His short stories have won several awards and have appeared in Glimmer Train, The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories, and The Journey Prize Stories. Bock lives in Toronto.

      Dennis’s newest novel, The Good German, was released in fall 2020. Visit his publisher’s website to learn more about his books.

      Visit Dennis Bock’s website. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged ann y.k. choi, Canadian author, canadian novel, CanLit, david albertyn, Dennis Bock, Fiona Ross, New Releases, Plots and Pandemic, The Authors' Book Club, The Good German
    • Plots & Pandemic: Virtual Meet & Greet with Farzana Doctor

      Posted at 12:10 pm by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Sep 8th

      It’s September! We’re happy to host our next Plots & Pandemic Series event! Join us on Sunday, September 20, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EDT. Guests can interact with Farzana Doctor and with each other. We will begin with a short reading followed by a group discussion and Q & A.

      Register for this exclusive free event by emailing us at info@theauthorsbookclub.ca. Spacing is limited to 12 guests.

      Farzana is an author of four novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement, All Inclusive, and Seven, which was released in September 2020. Farzana was recently named one of CBC Books’ “100 Writers in Canada You Need To Know Now”. She is also an activist, part-time psychotherapist and amateur tarot card reader.

      Visit Farzana’s website.

      Follow here on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged ann y.k. choi, Canadian author, canadian novel, CanLit, david albertyn, DiverseCanLit, Farzana Doctor, Fiona Ross, The Authors Book Club
    • Authors, tell us a bit about yourselves … (more author interviews!)

      Posted at 10:00 am by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Sep 7th

      Check out our latest Author Interviews!

      Hannah Mary McKinnon
      Sister Dear
      Lisa de Nikolits
      The Rage Room
      Kelly S. Thompson
      Girls Need Not Apply
      Vanessa Farnsworth
      The Haweaters
      Brent Van Staalduine
      Boy
      See more videos!

      Visit our YouTube Channel to see more author events!

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged ann y.k. choi, author interviews, book clubs, Brent Van Staalduinen, canadian, canadian authors, canadian book clubs, Canadian books, CanLit, david albertyn, Fiona Ross, Hannah Mary McKinnon, KellySThompson, Lisa di Nikolits, The Authors Book Club, vanessa farnsworth, Youtube interviews
    • For your viewing pleasure!

      Posted at 11:30 am by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Aug 13th

      Our ongoing uncertain times have inspired us to get creative! We want to keep supporting authors and to find opportunities to engage them with readers.

      We are now on YouTube! Check out what we’ve been doing so far:

      • Plots & Pandemic: Interactive Meet & Greet for Authors and Readers
      • Virtual book club launches
      • Author Interviews


      As well, each of us has our own little space in our YouTube community:

      Ann’s Corner features videos for writers and readers interested in the writing world.

      Fiona’s Corner focuses on book clubs and the reading community.

      The Caledon Women’s Book Club with guest author Farzana Doctor

      David’s Corner will be a series of entertaining videos for writers. More info to come soon.


      Is there something specific you’d like to see? We’d love to hear your ideas. Is there an author from our list you’d like to see interviewed or featured in any of our events? Let us know. Email us at info@theauthorsbookclub.ca or comment below.

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged ann y.k. choi, book clubs, canadian authors, CanLit, david albertyn, Fiona Ross, online book clubs, Plots and Pandemic, The Authors Book Club, virtual book clubs, virtual book launch
    • Calling all book clubs!

      Posted at 11:25 am by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Aug 6th

      Post by Fiona Ross

      We have a volunteer team of four here at The Authors Book Club.  David and Ann represent the authors and (obviously) have knowledge and connections with the publishing industry.  Claire, our newest addition, is our creative tech troubleshooter.  Me, well, I am the book club “expert”.  I am supposed to get book clubs involved and connected to our authors, and well folks, thus far I don’t think I have done a very good job. Right now we have three book clubs signed up (and one of them is mine).  Now, while it is true it is hard to get fired from a job that is entirely voluntary, I am asking for your help.  PLEASE consider signing your book club up with us. A brief blurb about your club and a picture would be wonderful. See how the others have done it by visiting our Book Club Page.

      IF you sign up (I feel like I should be offering a set of knives or something) you will get advance notice of any of our free digital events and we will be starting a quarterly draw for a signed book from one of 50+ authors. 

      On a more serious note, we need to support authors and publishers in Canada if we want them to be around in the future, and we need your help.  Buy books by CanLit authors, preferably from a local independent book seller if possible.  However, you don’t need to spend a dime and you can still do lots to help.  Please consider the following:

      1.  Request a book from your local library
      2.  Write a positive review on Goodreads, Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.ca
      3. If you are on Twitter retweet out a book announcement (book birthdays are always on a Tuesday BTW)

      Check out our Summer Newsletter and our upcoming events. You can sign up your book club or ask any questions you may have by emailing us at info@theauthorsbookclub.ca.

      Hope to hear from you soon!


      Fiona Ross is teacher librarian and book club consultant with The Authors’ Book Club. From the time she read her first novel, Bimbo and Topsy by Enid Blyton at age 6, she was hooked on fiction.  Fiona is an avid reader, a teacher librarian, a current member of two book clubs and past chair of the Secondary Fiction Review Committee at the Peel District School Board.  She also serves on the planning committee at the Festival of Literary Diversity, (FOLD). Although her job demands lots of YA she occasionally tries to read a book aimed at adult readers. 

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged book clubs, canadian authors, Fiona Ross, readers and writers, The Authors Book Club, virtual book clubs
    • Plots & Pandemic: Virtual Meet & Greet with Adnan Khan

      Posted at 11:16 am by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Aug 2nd

      It’s August! We’re happy to host our next Plots & Pandemic Series event! Join us on Thursday, August 20, 2020, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. EDT. Guests can interact with Adnan Khan and with each other. We will begin with a short reading followed by a group discussion and Q & A.

      Register for this exclusive free event by emailing us at info@theauthorsbookclub.ca. Spacing is limited to 12 guests.

      Adnan is a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. He has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and was awarded the 2016 RBC Taylor Emerging Writer award. His debut novel, There Has To Be A Knife, was named a best Canadian novel of 2019 by the CBC, and called “a raw, gritty, shiver-inducing—but very readable—account of a young man in a spiral of grief and self-destruction,” by Kirkus Review. His film work includes co-writing the screenplay Shook, for Scarborough Pictures, and his non-fiction has been published in The Globe and Mail, Maisonneuve, among others. Alongside this, he is regularly invited to speak on panels, has taught non-fiction at the University of Guelph, and is the fiction editor at Puritan magazine. His writing is represented by the Transatlantic Agency.  

      Visit Adnan’s website. Follow him on Twitter.

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged Adnan Khan, book clubs, canadian book clubs, DiverseCanLit, fiction, Plots and Pandemic, Recommended Books, The Authors' Book Club
    • Plots & Pandemic: Virtual Meet & Greet with Dorothy Ellen Palmer

      Posted at 9:20 am by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Jul 2nd

      We are thrilled to host our next Plots & Pandemic Series event! Join us on Sunday, July 12, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EDT. Guests can interact with Dorothy and with each other. We will begin with a short reading followed by a group discussion and Q & A.

      Register for this exclusive free event by emailing us at info@theauthorsbookclub.ca. Spacing is limited to 12 guests.

      Dorothy is a mom, disabled senior writer, accessibility advocate, adoptee, retired high school Drama teacher, improv coach and union activist. Her recent memoir, Falling for Myself, (Wolsak and Wynn 2019) examines how disability and adoption combined to help her become an activist and find her birthparents. Reviewed in the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and Quill and Quire, it has been heralded as both funny and whip smart. Her first novel, When Fenelon Falls, (Coach House, 2010), features a disabled teen protagonist in the Woodstock-Moonwalk summer of 1969. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in both literary and disability journals: REFUSE, Readers Digest, Broadview Magazine, Wordgathering, Canthius, Alt-Minds, All Lit Up, Little Fiction Big Truths, 49th Shelf, and Open Book. She serves on the Accessibility Advisory Committee for FOLD and the Disability Justice Network of Ontario (DJNO). She is a graduate of Western University and did her teacher training at Simon Fraser University.

      Contact Dorothy. Follow her on Twitter.

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged book clubs, canadian book clubs, Dorothy Ellen Palmer, Falling For Myself, The Authors' Book Club
    • I still get it wrong: judging a book by its cover

      Posted at 9:30 am by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Jun 18th

      Post by Fiona Ross

      One of the biggest benefits of a book club (book clubs) is that you don’t get to always pick the books, other people do.  Now, let me tell you, as a teacher and librarian it’s not easy giving up that control or the power, but if you do, when you do, you may discover some happy surprises.

      The books I have read because I have had to as a reviewer, or as a book club member, are too many to list.  As a reader, my tastes lean to historical fiction, literary fiction, Canadian fiction and memoir. I tend to really favour female protagonists.  As a secondary school librarian, I read social justice (diverse literature) and YA.  For my beloved SUCCESS program at school I also include picture books.  I read widely.  And here is the rub, even after all these books and all this time, I still get it wrong.

      For example, when I joined The Authors’ Book Club, David Albertyn, our co-founder, sent me a copy of his novel Undercard as a thank you. He even wrote a lovely dedication inside.  I read the blurb and the synopsis, thought, “that’s nice” and filed it on my book shelf.  To be fair, I did think I would show it to my husband or middle son, because it might appeal to them.  I mean boxing? Vegas? A thriller?  Not exactly my cup of tea.

      And here we are. Six months later, a global pandemic, David’s U.S. release and an Authors’ Book Club event where I am moderating.  I can’t exactly show up when I haven’t read the book.  And you know what?  I love it. It is a story of friendship, intrigue, passion, history, boxing, racism, policing, military and so many other issues all woven in.  Mostly though, it is a well-paced story with likeable characters who you want to follow on their journey.  And really, isn’t that it?  Characters we care about, on a journey we can relate to.  Isn’t  that the essence of good storytelling and what readers want in a book? 

      I don’t like boxing.  I have never been to Las Vegas.  I am not a supporter of the police, or the military, and on the surface that is what this book is about.  But dig beneath the surface and it is a fast paced, rewarding read with relatable, interesting characters, and that is what readers want.

      So, if someone in your book club picks a book that doesn’t appeal.  Or, if you get a book as a gift that you would never pick for yourself, take a chance, dive in and actually read it.  Take it from me, a seasoned reader, it could be worth the chance. Just read.


      Fiona Ross is teacher librarian and book club consultant with The Authors’ Book Club. From the time she read her first novel, Bimbo and Topsy by Enid Blyton at age 6, she was hooked on fiction.  Fiona is an avid reader, a teacher librarian, a current member of two book clubs and past chair of the Secondary Fiction Review Committee at the Peel District School Board.  She also serves on the planning committee at the Festival of Literary Diversity, (FOLD). Although her job demands lots of YA she occasionally tries to read a book aimed at adult readers. 

      Follow Fiona on Twitter.

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged ann y.k. choi, canadian authors, Canadian books, CanLit, david albertyn, Fiona Ross, The Authors' Book Club, Undercard
    • Plots & Pandemic: Virtual Meet & Greet with David Albertyn

      Posted at 9:51 pm by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Jun 13th

      We’re delighted to kick off our Plots & Pandemic Series with our co-founder David Albertyn. Join us on Saturday, June 20, 2020 to engage in a virtual face-to-face event where guests can interact with David and each other. We will begin with a short reading followed by a group discussion and Q & A.

      Register for this exclusive free event by emailing us at info@theauthorsbookclub.ca. Spacing is limited to 12 guests.

      Born in Durban, South Africa in 1983, David immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1993. A graduate of Queen’s University and the Humber School for Writers – where he received a Letter of Distinction – he has been writing stories since the age of six. A tennis coach who has competed extensively in both tennis and track and field, David’s goal is to write visceral novels that are both thrilling and meaningful. The result of all David’s interests, influences and efforts is Undercard (2019), which is infused with scrupulous research and the pulse of the times we live in. It immediately resonated with David’s Canadian publisher, House of Anansi, and went on to resonate with his international publishers, HarperCollins Germany and HarperCollins France, his World English audiobook publisher, Dreamscape Media, and the award-winning production company that optioned the film/TV rights, Shaftesbury. 

      Visit David’s website and the Reader’s Guide for Undercard.

      Contact David. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged book clubs, Canadian author, david albertyn, The Authors' Book Club, Undercard
    • Seeing advantage in every opportunity, good or bad

      Posted at 10:00 pm by TheAuthorsBookClub
      Jun 1st

      Post by Ann Y.K. Choi

      The vision behind The Authors’ Book Club is to bring authors and readers together. Our initiative, launched on January 1, 2020, started out strong. By our third month, the three of us – author David Albertyn, who co-founded this initiative, and Fiona Ross, our book club representative and I – had our goal and objectives firmly established. Fifty emerging and established writers from across Canada, from big, mid, and multinational publishers had joined us. We couldn’t be happier.

      Then COVID-19 happened. While having a good book to talk about is very important, most book clubs served another function: the opportunity for like-minded people to get together in a social setting, often over food and drinks. Readers typically wanted to invite authors to their book clubs to meet them face-to-face, get their books signed, and to take photos with them. But none of that was suddenly possible.

      My mother taught me early on the value of seeing advantage in every opportunity, good or bad. To that end, we encouraged virtual book club meetings. But we wanted to do more. A conversation with Tali Voron from The Soap Box Press and Coach House Books led to the virtual book launch of Patti M. Hall’s debut novel, Loving Large, published by Dundurn Press. Patti’s book launch was supposed to have been at Ben McNally Books in Toronto. We were thrilled when Patti enthusiastically accepted our invitation to hold the event online.

      After considering several virtual platforms, we settled on Zoom. Learning to navigate it proved to be an adventure. Unfortunately on the night of the event, we ran into technical problems with the closed captioning third-party. My heart sank knowing that we were unable to provide that for our attendees. Luckily, my daughter, who at 20-years old is able to figure out most tech-related challenges, told me to hit the ‘record’ button minutes into the event otherwise that too would have been lost.

      Thanks to Tali, we were also able to partner with an incredible Canadian publisher, Coach House Press. For the entire month of May 2020, we featured one of their books and its author in what became The Authors’ Book Club Spotlight Series. As a result, we have a wonderful collection of twenty blog posts!

      Looking ahead, we want to continue The Authors’ Book Club Spotlight Series into the summer with different programming. Fiona suggested we call it “The Spotlight Series: Plots & Pandemic”. We’re thinking of hosting an interactive Author and Reader “meet & greet”. All participants would be in a virtual space with their cameras and mics on so that they could interact with each other and the author. The number of participants would be kept low to encourage engagement. More details on this to come.

      In the meanwhile, thanks to my daughter, I’ve just learned to create a YouTube channel for The Authors’ Book Club. Yay! But after four hours, the file finally uploaded, more time is needed to process it. The video of Patti’s book launch will be available in a day or two. The transcribed notes will also be available to accompany it.

      Three months ago, I had never even heard of Zoom; nor had I imagined the number of days I’d be spending in front of a computer learning new programs and relying on online communities and YouTube videos to problem-solve. Yet, here I am at 52-years old, learning new skills. I’m confident that my experience mirrors that of many others during these uncertain times. While none of this is extraordinary, it still feels damn good.


      Ann Y.K. Choi‘s debut novel, Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety, was a Toronto Book Awards finalist and One of CBC Books 12 Best Canadian Debut Novels of 2016. Most recently, the Korean Canadian Heritage Awards committee recognized her for promoting Korean culture within Canada. Ann is the co-founder of The Authors’ Book Club.

      Visit Ann’s website. Follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

      Posted in Recommended Books | Tagged ann y.k. choi, author, Canadian author, Coach House Books, Dundurn Press, Fiona Ross, Loving Large, Patti M Hall, Tali Voron, The Authors' Book Club, virtual book launch
    • ← Older posts
      Newer posts →
    • For up-to-date info, see us on Twitter

      My Tweets
    • Also see us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

      • Instagram
      • Facebook
      • YouTube
    • For a list of Blog Posts, see the tab ‘NEWS, EVENTS, ETC.’

      • The Quotable Dennis Bock
      • Plots & Pandemic: Virtual Meet & Greet with Lee Gowan
      • Catching up with David Albertyn
      • An Interview With Ami Sands Brodoff
      • An Interview With Cathrin Bradbury
  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • Blog Posts by Month

    • July 2022
    • April 2022
    • January 2022
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • February 2021
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
  • Need this text translated?

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • The Authors Book Club
    • Join 85 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Authors Book Club
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...