GG Non-Fiction Nominess
Posted on November 13 at 11:57 PM
Award winning Truths
From vanishing species to gun culture in Canada ,the nominees for this year's Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction cover a lot of ground and Words At Large is there.
The jury's out on this $25,000. award and we won't hear til November 27th just who the lucky winner is. Could it be the former parliamentarian with the inside scoop on the private life of one of Canada's most controversial prime ministers? How about the archaeologist who dug up traces of the underground railroad in a school in Toronto? Then there's the hiphop magazine duo who investigate guns and music; a biologist who has an answer for our vanishing songbirds and finally a challenging yet hopeful experience with AIDS in Africa.
The Words at Large podcast will have more on this year's 5 nominated books.
Ken Follett Interview
Posted on November 12 at 11:58 PM
(photo: The Fundacion Catedral Santa Maria) Well known as a writer of international best sellers, Ken Follett was born in Wales and began his career as a newspaper reporter in Wales and in London. His first bestselling novel, The Eye of the Needle, won the Edgar Award and was adapted as a film. He followed this success with four more thrillers: Triple, The Key to Rebecca, The Man from St. Petersburg, and Lie Down with Lions. He surprised readers when he came out with an epic historical fiction novel in 1989, The PIllars of the Earth. It was on the NYTimes besteller list for 18 weeks. Now he's come out with a sequel to that successful book, World Without End, published by Dutton. Follett is also president of the Dyslexia Institute, a council member of the National Literacy Trust, and an amateur musician who plays bass guitar in a band called Damn Right I Got the Blues. He and his wife live in a rectory in Stevenage, 30 miles north of London, with two Labrador retrievers called Custard and Bess.
You were very established as a thriller writer when you published The PIllars of the Earth. What inspired you to take up historical fiction?
Pillars was inspired by the Gothic cathedrals of Europe. Every time I stood in one of these remarkable buildings, I would wonder: Why is it here? My book is the answer to that question.
The Unnatural History of the Sea
Posted on November 11 at 11:59 PM
All around the world, the oceans are in crisis. Fisheries are collapsing, as long-liners and factory trawlers vacuum the oceans clean, devastating entire species and ecosystems. Our appetite for fish and seafood is leading to what many scientists think is a global fisheries disaster. According to Dr. Callum Roberts, however, there's nothing new about this. As soon as humans first took to the oceans, we started over-exploiting them. But in his new book, The Unnatural History of the Sea (Island Press Books), Dr. Roberts tells us that history can teach us how to save the seas today.
The Unnatural History of the Sea by Dr. Callum Roberts (audio) First aired on Quirks and Quarks, October 20, 2007
[runs 17:40]
Reading and Remembrance
Posted on November 10 at 11:55 PM
On November 11, Canadians pause in a silent moment of remembrance for the men and women who died while serving our country during times of war, and by extension, those who continue to serve in times of conflict and peace.
This fall, a number of books attempt to capture the history of Canadian participation in armed conflicts from the past to present day.
Tim Cook, a curator and historian at the Canadian War Museum, has written a two-volume book called At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1914-1916 (Viking Canada). The book features never-before-published photographs, letters, diaries, and maps and recounts the hard-won triumphs of the Great War through soldiers’ moving eyewitness accounts.
Snapshots of the First World War: 5 Key Moments in Canadian History
Posted on November 10 at 11:55 PM
By Nathan Greenfield, author of Baptism of Fire
It’s impossible to sum up the experiences of all Canadians in the First World War with these five key battles—but these crucial moments are clear examples of the extreme hardship of life in the trenches.
The Second Battle of Ypres: April 1915
At 5 PM on April 22, the Germans unleashed the first gas attack in history, tearing a hole almost five miles wide in the French lines, immediately to the Canadians’ left. Canadian counter-attacks at midnight and the following dawn stymied the German advance. At 4 AM on April 24, the Canadians withstood another gas attack. The weight of German shelling and infantry attacks later forced them to withdraw to more defensible positions closer to Ypres. In one hundred hours of battle, the Canadians suffered more than five thousand casualties.
Continue reading "Snapshots of the First World War: 5 Key Moments in Canadian History" »
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Award winning Truths
From vanishing species to gun culture in Canada, the nominees for this year's Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction cover a lot of ground and Words At Large is there.
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Between the Covers Podcast
The Stone Carvers Episode Eleven
In this chapter Klara begins to look forward to the future.
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