Events Galore!!!

Here it is.... drum roll please.... RWB's great line up of events for the month of June. We are very excited to host all these wonderful authors and poets and it would be great if you could join us, for any or better yet, all of them!!!

June 4:
Sally Gardner : The Silver Blade, Orion
Awarding winning author presents the long awaited sequel to the exciting young adult's novel The Red Necklace about the French Revolution: at 6pm at the RWB

June 7:
Anne Marsella : Patsy Boone and Remedy, Portobello, Anne Marsella will talk about writing in English and in French in Paris at 3pm

June 7:
T.E. Carhart : The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, Vintage Press T.E. Carhart will read from his beloved bestseller about the hidden world of an atelier in Paris at 5 pm

June 7 :
Cole Swensen : American Hybrid, Norton and poets such as Kathleen Fraser, Jorie Graham, Alice Notley, Stacy Doris will celebrate the publication of The Norton Anthology of New Poetry -edited by Cole Swensen and David St. John at 630pm

June 8 :
Marie Etienne presents with Marilyn Hacker : King of a Hundred Horsemen (The National Poetry Series) FSG, winner of both the Robert Fagles Translation Prize and Pen Translation Prize at 7pm

June 12 :
Jill Jonnes : Eiffel's Tower, Viking 7pm

June 16 : David Francis: Stray Dog Winter Macadam Cage -7pm

June 29 : Steve Tomasula: Vas: An Opera in Flatland, University of Chicago Press- 7pm


The events are free and will take place at 22 rue St. Paul 75004

Very often, Penelope will pull a book from our shelves because it looks like an interesting book. But it is not so often that the editor of a book she's pulled out will actually walk in the store! That's exactly what happened to Ben Servier from Penguin who came a -visiting and found a book, near and dear to him. The Little Book by Selden Edwards was one of his babies and here he was justifiable proud when he came across it! We were happy to have made his day!

Today we had a wonderful surprise when Anita Lobel walked in RWB. It was so nice to meet such a lovely person whose books we enjoy so much. Even better was the news that she has new books out, and we even got copies! And that she is currently working on another one.

Check out the photo with RWB's Aldridge Hansberry who is herself a great musician!

Watch out for the full list of events coming up in June!

Just before the Ascension weekend, we had two authors visit us at the RWB. Marilyn Hacker stopped by, as excited as we are about the upcoming bilingual reading with Marie Etienne on the 8th of June. Her new book, a wonderful translation of Marie Etienne's poems has just won two prestigious awards, the Robert Fagles Award and the Pen Award for Poetry in Translation. It will certainly be a treat to have such talented poets at the RWB.
The other author who stopped by was the always charming Jonathon Green author of the Chambers Slang Dictionary. He is acknowledged as the English speaking world's leading expert on slang! His book is funny and indispensable and we always look forward to his visits...

Un avant gout for June

We had a wonderful surprise this morning when the lovely Cole Swensen stopped by at the RWB. And we are very pleased to announce that she will be doing a poetry reading along with Ms. Jorie Graham and Ms. Stacy Dorris at the RWB on the 7th of June at 630 PM. The poets will be reading from the book American Hybrid whose introduction and selection of poems are by Cole Swensen.

I can't tell you how excited we are about this upcoming poetry event at RWB!

RWB and Paris en Toutes Lettres

Recently, Paris' popular mayor Bertrand Delanoe held a press conference to launch the first city wide literary festival. The festival titled Paris en Toutes Lettres will run from 4th of June till the 8th of June and it aims to showcase the city of Paris both as a vivid inspiration for a number of great literature written by both French and non-French speaking writers and as a literary city that welcomes and shelters writers. This is an important literary event that will entail the participation of the city libraries including the National Library, the bouquinistes, cafes, theatres and a good number of independent bookstores, including the Red Wheelbarrow. In connection with this festival, a number of events, readings and special film screenings are being planned. They are even planning to invite a writer to set up at a designated area where he will write until he completes a book during the duration of the festival. I'm sure that's going to be something to see!

We at RWB have planned an exciting array of events in connection with the Paris en Toutes Lettres that will take place within our wonderful store! And because we were so inspired with the planning of the festival events, we went ahead and planned several other events at the RWB for the month of June. We are seriously packed for the month of June. Everyone is welcome to join us and if you want to receive reminders by mail, don't hesitate to send us your email address at good.reading@wanadoo.fr! A full schedule of June's events, including those for the Paris en Toutes Lettres festival will be uploaded on the website (and this blog) within the next few days so stay tuned!

For the Paris en Toutes Lettres Festival, RWB's events are the following...don't forget to write them down in your agendas

4 June 2009 --Sally Gardner who will be reading from the Silver Blade at 6PM

7 June 2009-- Anne Marsella who will be reading from her new book Patsy Boone as well as giving a talk on the craft of writing in a foreign tongue. That's at 3PM

7 June 2009--T.E. Carhart who will be reading from his bestselling book Piano Shop on the Left Bank at 5PM.

8 June 2009--Marilyn Hacker and Marie Etienne doing a bilingual reading from the King of a Hundred Horsemen at 7PM. Marilyn Hacker has just won the prestigious Robert Fagles prize for translation for this wonderful book.

Before I close this post, I wanted to share some pictures I took of the Hotel De Ville. I couldn't resist playing the tourist while inside since these are parts that are normally off-limits to visitors unless you've got an official reason to be there!

One of the lovely great halls that are used for official functions...

This is where we were for the press conference!

The Subversive Copy Editor

Despite the gray skies, we had a great turnout for the reading of Carol Fisher Saller's new book "The Subversive Copy Editor" published by University of Chicago Press. Fellow editors, writers and lovers of the written word gathered to partake of Ms. Saller's extensive experience in the world of copy editing, now distilled in her great book. After a brief introduction, the reading started appropriately enough with a bit of talk on the Chicago Manual of Style, one of the most regarded and respected writing manual in the world. Then she continued with some passages from the book which were humorous and interesting. Who would have ever guessed that a topic such as copy editing could be so involving? As Ms. Saller points out, we all have, at one point had to "edit" someone's work in one capacity or another!

The relevance of a good editor cannot ever be underestimated, as pointed out by Penelope, who did a bit of reading herself of a book (which shall remain unnamed) that could have done with a bit of good editing...

Here is the author with her good friend Deborah...

Its never complete without an author signing after....

Once again a great event! Special thanks to the University of Chicago Press people (especially Mirjam!) who very nicely contributed to our event.

Now we gear up for our June events. Let me tell you there's going to be plenty! And they're all great!

What a launch!

What a great time we had tonight at the book launch of Prof. Thornton's book. Loads of friends, colleagues and students stopped by to celebrate this great new addition to the study of Victorian literature which as Prof. Thornton puts it was the beginning of the virtual world. And if you want to know more about that, you'll have to get a copy of her book which was eagerly snapped up tonight!

Here's a shot of some of the happy people in the store...

Everyone was in high spirits, mingling and partaking of the bubbly! Lots of the sparkly heady stuff was opened tonight thanks to a great friend of RWB...

The proud author with her lovely book ...

Penelope with Prof. Colin Jones, whose book on the history of Paris is one of our best sellers! Hidden behind is his wife, Josephine McDonagh . Together with Jon Mee, they are currently working on a new book titled "Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities and the French Revolution". Hmmm....this may be another launch in the making....

Don't you just love our window? I tell you, it may look easy but creating a window, a good one at least, is an artform! Check out Carol Fisher Saller's book sitting proudly next to Prof. Thornton's.

Which reminds me......the reading for The Subversive Copy Editor is tomorrow at 3PM!
See you there!

Book Launch at 6PM

One last reminder before the big day! Book launch of Prof. Sara Thornton's book at 6PM at 22 Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore, 22 rue St. Paul.
See you there!

Two lovely authors + events

We had the pleasure of having two lovely authors stop by recently at the RWB.

Carol Bruneau who hails from Nova Scotia has written critically acclaimed short story collections and novels, one of which, Purple for Sky (published in the US as "A Purple Thread for Sky"), won the 2001 Thomas Radall Atlantic Fiction Award as well as Dartmouth Book Award. Her latest novel is Glass Voices about a woman who survives the Halifax explosion of 1917. It was certainly nice to make her acquaintance and we look forward to seeing her again!

Our other visitor was RWB favorite Cara Black who is currently in town to do several events for her newest novel Murder in the Latin Quarter. She stopped by to say hello and later on set up a cosy little interview at the back of the store. Her newest novel brings Aimee Leduc for the first time on the Left Bank. As with the other Leduc novels, this new one is sure to be a good read!

Before I close this post, just a quick reminder for everyone. We have two events this week..

15 May 2009 6PM--book launch of Prof. Thornton's Advertising, Subjectivity and the 19th Century Novel

16 May 2009 3PM--reading by Carol Fisher Saller from her new book The Subversive Copy Editor

Hope to see you all soon!

A long awaited sequel

Over the long weekend, I finally got the chance to sit and read Silver Blade, the long awaited sequel to the Red Necklace by Sally Gardner. I’d been so looking forward to it, as I was anxious to know how Yann and Sido’s story would play out. I’m happy to report that it’s every bit as good as Red Necklace!

At the beginning of the book, Yann and Sido are apart from each other. This is a time of great peril as the old aristocratic class makes way for the revolutionaries of 1789. Unfortunately the new regime fails to improve the people’s lot and to keep all dissent at bay the guillotine is used to great effect. Yann, who has been blessed with great powers, has decided to stay in Paris to help the people fleeing from Paris while Sido is away in London awaiting the time when they may be safely reunited. Unknown to them, there is danger coming closer every minute from an old and powerful foe as well as those bent on doing away with all dissenters to the new republic.
I can’t tell you enough how exciting the novel was. This is a fine piece historical fiction that is also a great adventure novel and a love story. And while it was written ostensibly for children, this is clearly a book to be enjoyed by readers of all ages. The author captures vividly the darkness and cruelty that pervaded this period of French history through her prose that gleams at times with poetic brilliance. It takes talent to make this particular period of history come alive in fiction form but she’s done a really great job. The only thing I would warn readers about this book is that it may not be for the squeamish or faint hearted as there are a number of gruesome details. But that’s a minor warning.

Her generous gifts of prose likewise enables her to create characters that come alive from the pages of the book. We’ve seen that in Yann and Sido, the principal characters we root for in the Red Necklace. This time around she’s taken pains with her secondary characters like Tetu the dwarf, Monsieur Aulard and Didier so you become attached to them too. You can’t help but be drawn into their story and to remain gripped by their fate till the last page.

This is a gripping read that shouldn’t be missed. Now I can’t wait for her reading at RWB in June!

This time, its not one of the Twilight books

Blame Stephenie Meyer and her hugely successful Twilight series for the resurgence in interest in all things Vampire related. Granted, there's no shortage of authors writing vampire book series (Laurell Hamilton and Kim Harrison, to name two) but Meyers is the great star in the vampire firmament of late. Having read my fill of the Twilight series, I recently turned my attention on another author who has long been popular for her vampire stories. And I was very pleased to make my acquaintance with Ms. Charlaine Harris (in a manner of speaking), author of the Southern Vampire series.

Charlaine Harris was in fact, already a well known mystery writer when she decided to turn her hand to the vampire genre. Such was the success of her books that HBO recently turned them into a tv series called True Blood. Since it’s always a good idea to start at the beginning, I picked up Dead Until Dark to begin my journey into Harris' universe.

The principal character is Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in small town Bon Temps Louisiana. She’s goodhearted if a bit isolated from the rest of the people and we learn that Sookie has a gift. She can “hear” people’s thoughts. And the effort of keeping out other people in her mind prevents her from being too close to people. We also learn that in Harris’ world, vampires have recently acquired legal status. Yup, they are now free to move about in the normal world complete with legal rights. The pesky problem of vampires drinking blood is solved with synthetic blood (sold as well in bars) and they’re not dead anymore, just suffering from a disease that makes them allergic to sunlight, silver and garlic. When Bill, a tall good looking (of course!) vampire comes to Bon Temps to set up house, Sookie is overjoyed. Finally here was someone whose thoughts she can’t hear. I suppose its not giving away too much of the plot if I tell you that Sookie falls hard for Bill. Only trouble is, women are turning up dead in town and they have fang marks.

This is the perfect book to read if you’re looking for something diverting and fun. Harris has written a vampire book with some twists. Sookie herself is a refreshingly likeable character, less warrior babe than Anita Blake or Buffy and less maiden in distress than Bella Swan. She’s a waitress but like she says “she’s not stupid or simple or a slut”. Add the fact that the vampires in this world are actually out and about and it makes for an interesting (to say the least) interaction between the humans and non-humans. What’s nice too about Dead Until Dark is that vivid description of a Louisiana small town. Harris is able to capture the nuances of small town life –the gossipy atmosphere of everyone knowing everyone else and their business but also the looking after each aspect that’s sometimes lost in big city living. My thought after finishing the book? I wouldn’t mind going further in the series and getting better acquainted with Sookie’s adventures.

Events of the Month

We are happy to announce our events for the month of May. Please write them down in your agendas!

On the 15th of May (Friday) at 6PM, we will have the book launch of Sara Thornton's new book Advertising, Subjectivity and the Nineteenth-Century Novel. In her new book, Ms. Thornton examines the interaction between fiction and advertising. This is a unique study in the field of Victorian literature that is sure to enrich and shed new light on the matter.

After advertising and Victorian literature, we are happy to host Carol Fisher Saller in a reading of her book The Subversive Copy Editor on the 16th of May (Saturday) at 3PM. Ms. Saller is a senior editor at the Manuscript Editing Department of the University of Chicago. As such she is in the unique position of reading the numerous writing and style questions lobbed at the Chicago Manual of Style Q and A forum. Her new book is a must for all lovers of language and writing. This is a great opportunity to meet (and yes, ask those questions you've always had!) and partake of Ms. Saller's immense expertise!

All events will take place at 22 rue St. Paul, 75004. To be kept updated on all our events, be a part of our mailing list and send us an email (with the subject RWB Mailing List) at good.reading@wanadoo.fr. Keep reading this blog for all upcoming events in June and July too!

Hope to see you soon at RWB!