More than a year later, we continue to reimagine ways to connect readers with authors living and working in Canada. We have encouraged virtual book club meetings and tried new and creative ways to bring people together, including our first “Book Tasting Event” co-hosted with The Soap Box Press. Authors Hannah Mary McKinnon, Victoria Hetherington, Cindy Aronson and Tamara Herman recommended food and drinks to pair with their books. They met with guests in private virtual rooms for this highly interactive experience.
New Releases Highlights
Early 2021 brought us new reads like the mysterious Son of Sherlock (Dorothy Ellen Palmer), the awaited Starr Sign (C.S. O’Cinneide), and the romantic comedy, Accidentally Engaged (Farah Heron).
April was a big month! The crime-riddled thriller, Lucky (Marissa Stapley), the darkly funny Six Weeks To Live (Catherine McKenzie), and the empowering Hana Khan Carries On (Uzma Jalaluddin) were released.
As always, April showers brings May… books! A bunch of new titles are hitting the shelves this month! The exciting Lost Immunity (Daniel Kalla) and the romantic Letters Across the Sea (Genevieve Graham) are out now. New thrillers, You Will Remember Me (Hannah Mary McKinnon), and The Sister’s Tale (Beth Powning), are available on May 25, 2021.
When I was five years old my mother and I used to fight about reading on a daily basis. She was an elementary teacher and I think the thought that her own child was not a “good” reader was an impossibility she was not willing to accept. It was Scotland in the 1970’s. Early readers on loan from the school were to be meticulously wrapped in brown paper or wallpaper samples. I am sure they were appallingly racist and sexist but I just remember the battles with my mother. Which, where and with were my Achilles heels. I still remember the tears to this day.
One day, no doubt in desperation, my mother took me to a big book store. It wasn’t in our own small town so I can only assume it was in Dunfermline or Edinburgh. To six year old me it was huge. I was told I could pick any book in the store, as long as I could prove that I could read the first page. I found one. It was by Enid Blyton and titled Bimbo and Topsy. It looked like a “real” book and had the picture of an adorable puppy and kitten on the front cover. Each chapter was about their adventures, they conveniently lived next door to each other, if I remember correctly. That was it, I was hooked. I read it all in one day and magically became a reader.
As an adult now there is much amiss with Enid Blyton, but as a young reader in Scotland her some 600 books offered a lot to choose from. I devoured the Famous Five and Secret Seven, although the obvious sexism did wrankle. The Magic Faraway Tree was my first taste of fantasy and Malory Towers and Tales of St. Clare’s introduced me to the “wonders” of boarding school (and socio economic privilege and classism, which I understood later). I don’t remember where or how I got all these books but I do remember reading about a book a day for much of my childhood in Scotland. I mean it rains there. A LOT! And I remember nights under the covers with a flashlight until the wee hours of the morning. I was terrified of being discovered, but much more distressed that I wouldn’t find out how the story ends.
At about 9 or 10 I found a new passion, horses. My parents couldn’t afford such a hobby but I could read about it endlessly. Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka, King of the Wind and Misty of Chincoteague. My copy of The Horsemasters by Don Stanford was read so much that it was held together by an elastic band to keep all the pages in place. My tastes had definitely become more international too. Another much loved favourite was The Silver Brumby series by Elyne Mitchell about the wild horses on the Australian outback. Through the magic of reading I was able to ride a horse and even be a horse, such was the power of words. Then I met Anne.
Anne of Green Gables was me, without the red hair, and with a stable loving home. Okay, maybe we had some significant differences, but I loved her. I loved her imagination, her intelligence, her passion for the underdog and making things right. I loved her disregard for gender conventions and her endless optimism. I read the whole series and then my parents told me we were moving, to Canada. Well, of course I assumed that meant Prince Edward Island, right? I mean, who has heard of a silly place called Ontario? Or Brampton? But that’s where we landed in September, 1978. I still haven’t made it out to PEI, but hopefully someday.
My mother was a huge influence and an avid reader herself, so by my teen years she would just pass along whatever she had just finished reading. Now, as a mother of teens, and a teacher librarian in a high school, those books were often highly unsuitable, in short, they would get me fired. Still, Flowers in The Attic and Clan of the Cave Bear were highly engaging reads, especially compared with Mitchell’s Who Has Seen The Wind and Steinbeck’s The Pearl. Who chose those books to inflict on grade 9 and 10 students? Just as well I was an established, avid reader before then.
By grade 11 I had been placed in the enriched English program, ENG 361 for those who remember that coding system. It was a class of 21 students, 18 of which were young women. That year we read Lord of the Flies, A Separate Peace, Macbeth and The Admirable Crichton (a J.M Barrie play). I distinctly remember the male teacher characterizing Lady M as the temptress and villain, and thinking to myself that was not how I saw it at all. In a discussion of Lord of the Flies, he wisely decreed that this was Golding’s view of human nature, to which I replied I didn’t see how that could be when he was missing 51% of the population. I hate that book to this day. This is when I started to become a much more critical reader, to understand that representation matters. Who is telling the story and who is interpreting the story becomes very important. I started to question the notion of the canon or the classics. Reading changed from being a beloved recreational activity to a powerful intellectual one.
Fast forward for the next thirty years and reading was a constant in my life. I got a degree in English Literature, became a high school English teacher, a mother, a member of two book clubs, a teacher librarian, and a book reviewer. Books were a significant part of my daily life, and I feel incredibly grateful for that. However, reading became an obligation, something that needed to be done. I ceased to have any choice in what I was reading, and while I still enjoyed books, it was not the same. My TBR pile was ever growing and the weight of what I “should” be reading became a heavy burden to bear.
Which brings me to (mostly) now. Where am I as a reader? Can I still even call myself that? In 2017 I was diagnosed with Cancer. It is extraordinarily rare, chronic and incurable #EHE (epithelioid hemangioendothelioma). My bandwidth and headspace became occupied with my own mortality, instead of books. Now, in Covid times it surely hasn’t improved. I am reading so much less that I feel like an imposter. What is unchanging is that I still love words and ideas. I still believe with everything in me that words are the surest and best way to change the world. I feel honoured to meet and promote Canadian authors through my work at the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) and The Authors Book Club. I may only be reading (or listening) to 30-40 books a year, but I have a lifetime of books behind me.
My name is Fiona, and I am a reader.
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.
Join us on November 15, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET. We will begin with a short reading followed by a group discussion and Q & A. The focus of this event will be the need for diverse stories: why representation in children’s books matters now more than ever.
Register for this exclusive free event by emailing us at info@theauthorsbookclub.ca. Spacing is limited to 12 guests.
Ann Y.K. Choi immigrated to Toronto from South Korea. Although she majored in English as an undergrad, she didn’t actively pursue a writing career until twenty years later when a Creative Writing instructor suggested that Ann turn a short story she was working on into a novel. The story, set in the 1980s, was inspired by Ann’s experience working in her family-run variety store. The novel, Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety, went on to become a finalist for the Toronto Book Award. Once Upon an Hour, Ann’s debut children’s picture book was released in October 2020. She is the co-founder of The Authors Book Club.
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.
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.
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 Cornerwill 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.
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:
Request a book from your local library
Write a positive review on Goodreads, Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.ca
If you are on Twitter retweet out a book announcement (book birthdays are always on a Tuesday BTW)
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.
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.
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.
