Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of attending an author event for Emily St. John Mandel author of "Station Eleven", my area's pick for the One Book One Community read this year.
Ms. Mandel was "in conversation" with Craig Norris for the first portion of the evening. Mr. Norris is a popular local CBC radio personality and lead singer for "The Kramdens". It was quite obvious that he had indeed read and enjoyed "Station Eleven" because he posed some very interesting questions about Ms. Mandel's writing process, how the concept of the book came to her and her personal feelings about not only the book but also the fact that it has been selected as the OBOC read this year. Ms. Mandel is well-spoken and her answers were most interesting. She has a wonderful sense of humor as well.
Mr. Norris invited Ms. Mandel to read a portion from the book and may I say she brought the characters to life. She read with emotion and it was quite clear that she was proud of this book, as well she should be. She is an excellent reader (I am often surprised that some authors are not).
Her reading was followed by a Q&A with the audience and then she was kind enough to sign books. Ms. Mandel was courteous and engaging as she was signing her book and most accommodating to those of us wanting a picture taken. (I like to attend author events on my own so many thanks to the lovely lady behind me in line for snapping the pic for me ... good job!)
Secrets revealed to those attending ...
... Despite the fact that the ending of "Station Eleven" is fairly open there will be NO sequel, although one or more of the characters may appear is future books.
... Ms. Mandel is currently working on her next book.
... She has participated in 92 events for "Station Eleven" over the past several months and in light of a very cute baby bump I hope she takes a well deserved rest soon.
It was a lovely evening sponsored by Wordsworth Books, OBOC, WPL and the Princess Theater.
Other books by Emily St. John Mandel include "The Lola Quartet". "The Singer's Gun" and "Last Night in Montreal".
Yesterday the Waterloo Region OBOC Committee announced its
choice for the One Book – One Community read for 2015. The announcement was made at the Waterloo
Regional Airport, which seems like a rather strange venue for a book announcement
but makes perfect sense when you read the book.
The winner was STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John
Mandel. Although I am not always
successful, I do try to read the OBOC choice every year. I had the pleasure of reading this book
several months ago when it appeared on a list of “must-reads” for this year (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1190826224)
A little about the author from Ms. Mandel’s website (which also
includes a synopsis and an excerpt from the book):
St. John’s my middle name. The books go under M.
Emily St. John Mandel was born and raised on the west coast
of British Columbia, Canada. She
studies contemporary dance at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and lived
briefly on Montreal before relocating to New York.
She is the author of four novels, most recently Station
Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner
Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
A previous novel, The Stranger’s Gun, was the 2014 winner of the
Prix Mystere de la Critique in France.
Her short fiction and essays have been anthologized in numerous
collections, including Best American Mystery Stories 2013. She is a staff writer for The Millions. She lives in New York City with her husband.
SO WHAT IS ONE BOOK – ONE COMMUNITY?
One Book – One community celebrates books and reading. A committee made up of the booksellers,
librarians, booklovers and the public chooses one book each year from a long
list of 75 – 100 entries. The aim of
the program is to have as many people as possible reading and discussing the
same book … to help build a community of readers.
In my area the criteria for each nominated book consists of
the following:
The
book must be written by a living Canadian author with, if possible, a body
of work.
The
book must be a well-written, award-winning story.
It
must appeal to the broadest possible audience: men and women, late teen to
seniors.
It
needs to encourage the exchange of ideas, including community building and
program potential
It
must be in print and available in paperback to make it affordable and
accessible for all
It
must have some element of the *WOW* factor.
Station Eleven certainly ticks off every point.
Some past winners include:
The One Book – One Community idea is not unique to my little
part of the world where it has been going on for thirteen years. The first program of its kind was introduced
in Seattle in 1998 under the name “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book” by
Nancy Pearl. The first book chosen was
The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks.
In Canada, according to the only information
I could locate, it seems the first such programs were launched in 2002 in both
Vancouver, British Columbia (The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy) andin
the (yay – go home area) Waterloo Region, Ontario (No Great Mischief by
Allistair McLeod). According to the US
Library of Congress 404 programs were active in 2007.
I think it is an excellent program if for no other reason
than often it makes me pick up a book outside my normal “go-to” genres. Alas, as with everything in life there are
always some detractors. Some consider
the thought of reading as community to be a bad idea. Harold Bloom was quoted as saying, “I don’t like these mass
reading bees … it is rather like the idea that we are all going to pop out and
eat Chicken McNuggets or something else horrid at once.”
In 2002 New York City launched an effort to have a One City,
One Book program that failed miserably.
The selection committee actually split into two rival groups. Columbia Professor Ann Douglas was quoted in
the New
York Times as saying, “The New Yorker disdains to be a booster of his own
city or of his own culture. That is for
the provinces. As far as reading goes
we are the most important group of readers and critics in the country and even
possibly the world. I would prefer to
let us go on our merry way as we have for the last 100 years, deciding what
everyone else should read.”
Well! That certainly
puts those of us
who have communities successfully
running the program in our
place, don’t it?
I think NYC could take a lesson from Boston. Their One City One Story program chose
short stories and distributed thousands of them at no charge over the course of
one month.
Native Canadian author Richard Wagamese is one of the
most frequently selected authors for these types of programs throughout
Canada. Ragged Company was the
Waterloo Region’s choice in 2013. In
the following video, available on YouTube he discusses what it means to an author to be chosen for these programs.
All in all I do believe the One Book – One Community
programs are excellent for both the readers and the authors involved and I will
definitely continue in my attempt to read the choices every year.
My reading tastes are fairly eclectic. Two things I do enjoy are true crime books and books that have locales with which I am familiar. The Massey Murder combines those two things in a readable and informative book. (my complete review of the book can be found on Goodreads).
As I was reading the book I had one of those "wait a minute" moments that made me Google the Massey Mansion to see if I was correct. I was! The Massey Mansion is now The Keg Mansion in Toronto and I have enjoyed dinner there. I thought that was pretty cool! No wonder the restaurant is rumored to be haunted.
I was off to my local library again when I heard that Charlotte Gray and Edward Greenspan, one of Canada's best known criminal defense attorney's, were going to be there discussing The Massey Murder not only as a book but the case itself. Mr. Greenspan discussed how he would have defended Carrie Davies. It was a riveting discussion and I was surprised at how much humour Mr. Greenspan displayed. At the risk of being accused of stereotyping I wasn't expecting it. Sadly, not long after the event Mr. Greenspan passed away, so I was even more pleased to have been able to hear him speak.
Ms. Gray's book The Massey Murder was chosen as the Waterloo Region One Book - One Community read for 2014.
