Bookmark Monday No 3 & 4: Writer's Trust Awards

  

I was able to get two bookmarks related to the Writers' Trust of Canada Awards for 2009. I don't think the prizes were awarded at the time I pocketed these bookmarks so it showed the contenders at the back. The books look for some interesting reading from some Canadian authors!

The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon (winner of the fiction prize)

Annabel Lyon’s Aristotle is the most fully realized historical character in contemporary fiction. The Golden Mean engenders in the reader the same helpless sensitivity to the ferocious beauty of the world that is Aristotle’s disease. In this alarmingly confident and transporting debut novel, Lyon offers us that rarest of treats: a book about philosophy, about the power of ideas, that chortles and sings like an earthy romance.”—2009 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Jury (Marina Endicott, Miriam Toews, R. M. Vaughan)

Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life by Brian Brett (winner of the non-fiction prize)

In an age increasingly marked by alienation from the natural world, including the natural world of traditional human experience, Trauma Farm comes as a revelation of engagement. Employing a no-nonsense lyricism that draws on a lifetime of farming and writing, as well as a profound sensitivity to the environment, author Brian Brett takes the reader on a vibrant tour of his small west coast island farm. By turns comic and tragic, celebratory and angry, but always impassioned about the importance of maintaining a connection to the hands-on lessons of rural living, Brett's story is a lively, well-researched blend of memoir and socio-political commentary, a rare celebration of youth, age, and the tumultuous, surprising journey between them. -2009 Jury (Tim Bowling, Anne Hart and Bruce Meyer)

The Flying Troutmans: A Novel by Miriam Toews

A road novel helped along by a lovably nutty cast, Toews's latest (after A Complicated Kindness) follows a ragtag crew as they crisscross America. Hattie, recently dumped in Paris by her moody, adjective-hating boyfriend, returns home to Canada after receiving an emergency phone call from her niece. Turns out, Hattie's sister, Min, is back in the psych ward, and her kids, 11-year-old Thebes and 15-year-old Logan, are fending for themselves. Thus the quirky trio—purple-haired, wise-beyond-her-years Thebes, recently expelled brother Logan and overwhelmed Hattie—embark on a road trip to the States to find the kids' long-missing father. What follows is a Little Miss Sunshine–like quest in which the characters learn about themselves and each other as they weather car repairs, sleazy motel rooms and encounters with bizarre people. Toews's gift for writing precocious children and the story's antic momentum redeem the familiar set-up, and if the ending feels a bit rushed, it's largely because it's tough to let Toews's characters go. {Via}

Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood by Taras Grescoe

In "Bottomfeeder", we follow Taras Grescoe on a year-long, round-the-world trip, as he eats his way from the top to the bottom of the food chain with one purpose in mind: to find out whether he can continue to eat such delicacies in good conscience. As well as painting a vivid and often hilarious picture of the fascinating people Taras encounters, "Bottomfeeder" explores the impact we are having on sea life by overfishing and draws our attention to some of the ethical choices we can make. At a time when many of the fish we take for granted are on the verge of extinction, we need to face the fact that very soon jellyfish sandwiches may be all that is left for us to eat.  {Via}