Andree Lachapelle's Blog
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
When things get busy in my personal life and work seems overwhelming, like many women in my situation, I dream of getting away.
Vacations are always great and indeed, the appeal of getting lost in a foreign city and hiding out at a luxurious hotel gets increasingly appealing as stress levels reach maximum overload.
Some of us are able to physically hit the road in search of more interesting pastures; for others, the momentary escape must come from books that make us dream, and temporarily remove us from the environment we are trying to escape.
Books are the ultimate in escapism, and women's novels, such as Catherine Hanrahan's "Lost Girls and Love Hotels," are the perfect way to leave our lives behind, ever so briefly.
Hanrahan's "Lost Girls and Love Hotels" is women's fiction at its best.
The story focuses on Margaret, a girl who is trying to forget her own home by escaping to Tokyo - a city bustling with activity night and day. Margaret finds a job working as an English Specialist at a busy flight attendant training school and eventually gets involved in a tortuous affair with a local gangster.
While Tokyo provides Margaret with the perfect escape from her life back home, she soon creates a new life for herself, another world worth escaping and in the end, there is no running away from herself:
"I have realized that no matter what I do, Air-Pro Stewardess Training Institute will never fire me. So, I've been driven to dressing for shock value, like a petulant teenager-strolling into the lobby in ski pants and ballet slippers."
Catherine Hanrahan's prose is engaging, and the book draws you in from the start; the images created in "Lost Girls and Love Hotels" are haunting, perfect depictions of a life foreign to all protagonists.
"Lost Girls and Love Hotels" is the perfect way to escape from your life, if all you have is ten or fifteen minutes a day.
For author interviews, information about literary events, and reviews of chick lit and quality women's fiction, keep visiting the Women's Fiction section of Suite101.com!
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
On September 7, 2006, Toronto-based Coach House Books - a publishing house founded in 1965 by Stan Bevington - will be hosting a celebration for people who write books, and the people who loved them.
The general public will get a chance to meet some of their favourite Coach House Books authors - an impressive list that includes many popular writers of women's fiction such as: Sarah Sheard, author of "Almost Japanese"; Susannah Smith, author of "How the Blessed Live"; Nicole Brossard, author of "Mauve Desert"; Tanya Chapman, author of the forthcoming "King'; and Andrée A. Michaud, author of "The River of the Dead Trees."
Other celebrated Coach House Books authors include modern pulp fiction writer Patricia Seaman ("New Motor Queen City,") and Broken Pencil Magazine Fiction Editor Hal Niedzviecki ("Lurvy.")
Coach House Books is located in the heart of the University of Toronto campus at 401 Huron Street in Toronto, Ontario. The celebration begins at 5 o'clock in the front yard of the Coach House, where food and drinks will be served to all in attendance - readers and writers alike - as Coach House Books opens its doors and its kegs to the local populace.
For more information, visit Coach House Books online at CHBooks.com.
Resources:
These books - and more! - can be ordered online by visiting the official Coach House Books website at CHBooks.com.
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
On October 4, 2006, the International Readings Series at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre will be bringing delighted audiences an evening of readings by popular authors, in honour of one of Toronto's most beloved bookstores: Book City.
Author Monica Ali, who received critical acclaim for her first novel, "Brick Lane," will be reading from her second book, "Alentejo Blue."
Set in the Portuguese village of Mamarrosa, "Alentejo Blue" tells the town's stories and histories by following the lives of its villagers, from dreamy Teresa, who longs to escape, to prodigal son Marco Alfonso Rodrigues, who may never return.
Writers Bill Gaston, Michael Redhill, and David Adams Richards will also be in attendance to read from their latest books, making the event one not to be missed!
A family-owned business, Book City has been in existence for 30 years, and the store has never been better: with locations in the Annex, in Bloor West Village, at Yonge and Bloor, on the Danforth, and in Toronto's Beaches (or "The Beach," if you prefer,) Book City has become a favourite of Toronto bookworms.
Book City has been hailed as one of the best bookstores in Toronto; each location features a pleasant, laid-back atmosphere, friendly, knowledgeable staff, and a vast selection of reading material -- at great value! All this - and three decades in the book business - is cause enough for celebration!
Be sure to make your way to Harbourfront Centre on October 4th to show your love of books, and your appreciation of this Toronto institution.
To find out about other author events at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, visit Readings.org. For more information about Book City and the store's 30th anniversary, visit BookCity.ca.
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
A few years ago I lived in Drumheller, Alberta - very briefly, don't ask! - and was surprised, upon arriving for a three-day stopover in Calgary, to see what a fun city it could be! It had a certain bohemian charm that could not be ignored, and though this was years ago, it seems this left-of-center ambiance is still ever present, perhaps stronger than ever.
Could it be that Calgary is actually cool?
Judging by Filling Station, one would think so.
According to the magazine's website, FillingStation.ca, every single one of the people working at Filling Station is "hip like you wouldn't believe."
Oh, I believe it!
This month, Filling Station will be hosting the second annual Blow Out, an annual festival of "poetry, prose, and community."
Appearing at this year's event:
- Natalee Caple, author of "Mackerel Sky," "The Heart is Its Own Reason," "The Plight of the Happy People in an Ordinary World," and "A More Tender Ocean" -- nominated for a Gerald Lampert Award in 2000.
- Newfoundland writer Jessica Grant -- recipient of the 2003 McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize -- whose fiction has appeared in Event, Filling Station, Grain, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, and Prairie Fire.
- Melanie Little, whose fiction has been published in Sub-TERRAIN, The Fiddlehead, and Prairie Fire and whose first book, "Confidence," was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award and appeared in the Globe and Mail's Top 100 Books.
The line-up also includes former Filling Station editor Natalie Simpson, poet nikki reimer, spoken word activist Shone Abet ... and many more!
All events are free, and open to the public. To learn more, visit FillingStation.ca.
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
I have long been a fan of good old "P & P," - "Pride and Prejudice" - Jane Austen's classic tale of unrequited love, passion, lack of love, too much love, love found, lost, and found again, and and and ... the mind boggles!
What aspect of love isn't covered by "Pride and Prejudice"?
Darcy's side of the story, of course.
So it goes that just as I silently, quietly prepared to acquire the DVD of the popular British mini-series - Gasp! The TV series? Yes, the TV series! - to settle into another long winter (I plan ahead,) in my mailbox lands a tome that is bound to shake my beliefs, rattle my cage, and titillate me beyond words. Namely: "Darcy's Story," by Janet Aylmer.
The British Jane Austen buff - who used a nom de plume to pen this departure from the beloved Colin Firth fantasmatron - has taken it upon herself to boldly go where no woman has gone before. A place so dark and no doubt filled with such passionate calamity that even Ms. Austen herself did not dare enter: the mind of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy himself!
Oh, what wonders lie beneath the stoic surface, behind the stiff starched shirt and the stiff upper lip!
I almost squealed with delight when I saw the book!
I am almost afraid to touch it!
"Pride and Prejudice told from a whole new perspective," the cover states.
Be still my beating heart!
Almost two hundred years after his first encounter with Miss Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy finally gets a word in edgewise!
I can't wait to hear what he has to say.
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
As I get older I sit and ponder: which of my literary heroines have I become?
As we - women, that is - age, gracefully or not so gracefully, there is a bit of a stigma attached to being single. I never felt it when I was in my twenties - I was young, beautiful and oh-so-free. In my thirties, I became obsessed with finding a man. I devoured Cosmo and searched for suitable date-worthy men ... without thinking 'relationship.'
I vowed to remain happily single and to date as many hot men as I could, until the right one came along. This search would be a glamorous affair, not a last-resort mission: my search would involve trendy clubs and martini lounges, sexy clothes and stunning designer shoes.
The glamour associated with my marriage-less life would prevent me from being seen as a sad spinster.
'I think 'singleton' is a very useful word to describe yourself if you're not married: much better than spinster or bachelor,' Helen Fielding once told the New York Times.
I would never allow myself to be a Bridget Jones; to me, even Carrie Bradshaw reeked of despair. Times had changed and even though ages ago, I had seen poetry in Cathy and Heathcliffe's stormy affair, and beauty in the tragic love shared by Mary Shelley and her poet lovers - now I only saw talented, gorgeous women doomed to be single.
Singletons.
Whatever.
Unwilling to remain single, some of my friends married men they did not really care about and moved to suburbia, making peace with Danielle Steel and with their own lacklustre lives.
I stayed behind and remained a cynic-single, enamoured with Dorothy Parker's cutting wit: "I only require three things of a man. He must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid."
Deep down inside, however, I knew that one day I would find my One, and we would be bound to each other by true love, wild and passionate.
These days my single female friends all share a similar fantasy: to find a good man with a decent job, good manners, a healthy attitude towards sex, and a respectful attitude towards women.
He is more Mr. Darcy than Mark Darcy, and more Will Lightman than Daniel Cleaver ... He can mix a mean martini but won't insist on having it 'shaken, not stirred' as he indulges in Pussy Galore.
The perfect man is Big-with-a-Heart to our Carrie-with-Guts.
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
The cynic in me smirked when, on a recent chick lit shopping spree, I first spotted Pamela Anderson's novel. "She can read AND write," I immediately thought, amusing myself.
I picked up the book, and gave the cover a quick glance.
"What really happens when A-list meets D-cup," the back flap reads.
I put the book back with the other summer chick lit favourites, without buying the Baywatch star's novel. I couldn't get Pamela Anderson's book out of my mind, however. I had to investigate further.
Here's the scoop:
Pamela Anderson's "Star," published by Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, follows the adventures of Esther Wood Leigh, nicknamed "Star." The adventures in question turn out to be very much like Pamela Anderson's very own rise to fame.
Star Wood is a Florida tomboy who works two jobs to make ends meet, spending her days at Talon's Nail and Tan Spa and her nights at a steak and oyster restaurant ... until she gets discovered, and our Star begins to rise.
Sorry. I couldn't help myself.
In Pamela Anderson's follow-up novel, "Star Struck," our heroine marries a bad boy rock musician and as the two become media darlings, the entire planet comes to know the couple's dirty secrets. Oh my.
The writing is breezy and light. Very light. And a little bit self-indulgent. The books have been called charming, cheesy, trashy novelizations of Pamela Anderson's own life. The heroine follows in Pam's own footsteps, starting her climb to stardom with a beer ad campaign and a series of girlie magazine covers, only to land a headlining role in a popular TV show centering on beach culture. Finally, our star indulges in a great many love affairs with rock stars.
Hhmmm. Rock. Star.
I get it. And you should, too!
To find out more about Pam's current creative pursuits as well as the latest on all things "Star," visit Pamela Anderson's official site at www.PamelaAnderson.com
Click here to find out about fun chick lit books worth checking out!
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
Every year, thousands of book-lovers meet best-selling authors at book readings, seminars and literary luncheons where popular novelists gather to talk about their craft.
Here are a few literary festivals worth checking out ...
The Ottawa International Writers Festival
Past events have featured novelists Madeleine Thien ("Certainty,") Josephine Cox ("Journey's End,") Susan Glickman ("The Violin Lover,") and Linda Holeman ("The Moonlit Cage.")
For more information visit the Ottawa International Writers Festival online at www.writersfest.com.
WordFest
Australian novelist Kate Grenville ("Lilian's Story," "The Idea of Perfection,") is scheduled to appear at this year's WordFest.
For more information visit WordFest online at www.wordfest.com.
The Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival
This year the festival welcomes short-story writer Caroline Adderson ("Bad Imaginings,") author Stephanie Johnson ("Desperate Sisters,") and novelist Anita Rau Badami ("Tamarind Woman.")
For more information visit the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival online at www.writersfest.bc.ca.
The International Festival of Authors
Canadian author Margaret Atwood ("Oryx and Crake") and celebrated writer Nell Freudenberger ("Lucky Girls") will be at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre for this year's festival.
For more information visit the International Festival of Authors online at www.readings.org.
See you there!
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
When the best-selling author of "Something Borrowed," "Something Blue," and "Baby Proof" is asked about the kind of books she likes to read, she answers without hesitation.
"I love Sarah Dunn," she recently told fans gathered at Toronto's Indigo Books. Giffin adds that she also likes Jennifer Weiner, and Joshilyn Jackson, author of "Gods in Alabama."
"Smart chick lit, brilliant chick lit," says Giffin. Her own books have become best-sellers, one after the other. Let's face it: Emily Giffin knows good Chick Lit!
"Gods in Alabama," by Joshilyn Jackson, focuses on Arlene Fleet, a young woman who goes off to college in Chicago and promises to stop fornicating, stop lying, and never go back home to Possett, Alabama, while Jackson's latest novel, "Between, Georgia," tells of the bad blood between rival Georgia families. Both of Joshilyn Jackson's books are filled with hopes and dreams, and long-buried secrets.
Author Jennifer Weiner takes a not-much-lighter look at life with "Little Earthquakes," which focuses on the challenges faced by four new mothers, and "Good in Bed," the heroine of which might be perceived as another Bridget Jones. "In Her Shoes," became a huge success when it was turned into a movie starring Cameron Diaz, while Weiner's mystery novel, "Goodnight Nobody," has been described by Amazon.com as "Desperate Housewives" meets "Sex and the City."
Sarah Dunn's "The Big Love," published by Little, Brown, and Company, is described by the publisher as "a fresh and hilarious debut novel about commitment, competition, and the occasional joys of unencumbered sex, for readers of "Pride and Prejudice" to "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing."
I must admit to not having read "The Big Love," but it sounds like the perfect novel for women like Emily Giffin and me!
More Emily Giffin:
To see what Emily Giffin has to say about "Baby Proof," her latest novel, click here!
To find out about Emily Giffin's other books, click here!
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
I am the editor of a bridal magazine and as a result, I am generally interested in all things wedding ... it makes sense, therefore, that I should be intrigued by Emily Giffin's popular novels: "Something Borrowed," and "Something Blue."
In "Something Borrowed," Giffin's first novel, attorney Rachel White has a one-night stand with her friend Darcy's fiancé; as the wedding day approaches, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has fallen in love with her best friend's husband-to-be.
Giffin's follow-up novel, "Something Blue," gives us Darcy Rhone's side of the story: the heartfelt lament of a shallow glamour girl who had it all and felt secure in the knowledge that she would always have it all ... until it was stolen right under her perfect little nose!
The writing is light and conversational; Giffin pokes gentle fun at her contemporaries without indulging in the flesh-tearing wit displayed by other Chick Lit authors. This is not a Prada-wearing she-devil -- this is someone who could become your best friend. Simply put: Giffin seems like a very nice girl indeed ... give or take a few stolen fiancés!
Writer Emily Giffin will be at Indigo Books this Wednesday to discuss her new book, "Baby Proof." It goes without saying that I will be there too.
Emily Giffin reads from "Baby Proof"
Wednesday July 19, 2006, 7 p.m.
Indigo Books
2300 Yonge Street (at Yonge and Eglinton.)
Toronto, Ontario
For Emily Giffin's complete tour calendar, visit www.emilygiffin.com.
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
BookCrossing.com is a book sharing system that makes it easy - and fun! - to give your books away to complete strangers, who compete to find the books that interest them - participants in a literary treasure hunt of sorts.
Members of this online community simply register the books they want to share - or 'release' - with BookCrossing.com; a number is assigned to the book, which is then left in a public place for other book-lovers to find. The person releasing the book helps the process along by letting the other members know precisely where the book will be left. Book-finders are encouraged to post reviews and share their thoughts with other members, before releasing the books once again.
I first heard of the online book club ages ago, and have released a few books over the years ... but then as time passed, I forgot about BookCrossing.
This morning I started reading "River Reel," a new book by Bonnie Laing (published by Sumach Press.) I soon fell under the author's spell: her poetic descriptions of the main character's relationship with her mother touched my heart, and I immediately wanted to share. Share the feeling, share the experience, and share the book. "River Reel" caused such an intense wave of emotion to wash over me, that I would be selfish to keep it myself!
I think it is time for me to release a few beloved novels into the wild, in the hopes that someone will find the treasured books, and fall in love with them just as I did.
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
Danielle Steel has gathered a cult following over the years: her books are read in 28 languages worldwide, and over 550 million copies have been sold. Her combination of femininity and strength is clearly a winning formula.
A short while ago I was invited to view the fall product line-up from Elizabeth Arden, and one of the celebrity fragrances they were introducing that day was "Danielle."
We were shown a prototype of the perfume: a square, crystal bottle and pale pink packaging adorned with a black lace motif. The idea, we were told, was to represent writer Danielle Steel through her signature mix of femininity, and strength.
The fragrance is a lush floriental combining Sunset Orchids, Butterfly Jasmine, Hydroponic Rose, Mediterranean Mandarin and White Amber - to name but a few. Optimism, Romance, and Intrigue are represented - and the result is a fragrance as timeless as Steel herself.
The presentation included little tidbits of the bestselling author's life, and insight into her personality. I was intrigued enough to want to write an article about Danielle Steel.
I had never been a fan of Danielle Steel's writing, but I suddenly found myself in awe: I never knew that Steel was such a prolific, hard-working author - her 67th book "Coming Out," has just been published.
Danielle Steel is very much a self-made woman worthy of the public accolades she has received: Steel has created a stellar literary career for herself, and the Elizabeth Arden presentation left me with a renewed sense of utmost respect for a woman who has surmounted a great many hardships and sacrificed a lot, to get the life she wanted.
Femininity and strength, indeed.
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
Looking for a fun summer read?
Check out "Everyone Worth Knowing," by bestselling author Lauren Weisberger. The author of "The Devil Wears Prada" (now a major motion picture!) does it again, with a book bound to become another Chick Lit classic!
In "Everyone Worth Knowing," Weisberger chronicles the misadventures of Bette Robinson, a 26-year-old woman trying desperately to escape obscurity to become the darling of New York's social elite.
Curious about Lauren Weisberger's latest novel? You can read an excerpt now!
In "Over Her Dead Body," New York Times bestselling author and Cosmopolitan magazine editor-in-chief Kate White takes us on a crazy rollercoaster ride through the New York publishing world, a scene peopled with tyrannical tycoons, fat singers, murderous hunks, and sexy starlets wielding stolen Fendi bags.
When it comes to light summer reading, "Gucci Gucci Coo," a new novel by Sue Margolis, has what it takes: love, passion, scandal, stylish infants, and a handsome gynaecologist! The book is a hilarious look at the life of Ruby Silverman, a 32-year-old single woman whose world falls apart when her 50-year-old mother announces that she is about to have a baby.
Pooches, not babies, are the focus of women's obsession in a book by Clare Naylor (author of "Love: a User's Guide.")
In Naylor's amusing novel, "The Goddess Rules," artist Kate Disney is perfectly happy dating lacklustre men and painting pets of the rich and famous... until a fabulously carefree friend hires her to paint a portrait of her favourite lion cub, and Disney gets a taste of the good life.
And who doesn't want a taste of the good life?
Happy reading!
Posted by Andree Lachapelle
Blogs and 'reality novels' like Belle de Jour's "Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl," Tracy Quan's semi-autobiographical "Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl," and even Emma McLaughlin's "Nanny Diaries," are growing in popularity, challenging our definitions of fact and fiction.
I must admit: I like being challenged!
Turning your private life into a public forum is easy, and everybody seems to be doing it: anyone can sign up for an account with BlogSpot, MySpace or any other popular online journaling sites, create a blog, and proceed to tell thousands of perfect strangers about the daily happenings in their own private corner of the world.
Work troubles, family problems, relationship woes - anything goes, and the more intimate the details, the better! The blogosphere allows for complete anonymity, granting the writer the ability to reinvent themselves, the people around them, the places they haunt, and the very events they are describing.
With the publication of Belle de Jour's steamy "Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl," however, blogging has become an art and a respected form of literature...
There has been much debate as to whether or not Belle's story - indeed, Belle herself! - is real or fabricated, and the search for her true identity has preoccupied numerous journalists, book reviewers and bloggers. For a long time, the same questions were asked about the author of "The Story of O."
My article "Belle de Jour: Diary of a Dubious Nature" ponders whether Belle de Jour's popular books are based on fact or fiction ... but with a narrator this engaging, does it even matter, whether the tales are fabricated or true?
To paraphrase Mr. Jagger, what matters is "the singer, not the song!"