Ten books have been long-listed for the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction’s 2011 prize.
The list includes:
– On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing Women, by Stevie Cameron.
– Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall McLuhan, by Douglas Coupland.
– What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son’s Quest to Redeem the Past, by James Fitzgerald.
– Sunray: The Death and Life of Captain Nichola Goddard, by Valerie Fortney.
– Mordecai: The Life Times, by Charles Foran.
– Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich In the Klondike, by Charlotte Gray.
– Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker in Training, by Tom Jokinen.
– The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delaney Begins Her Life’s Work at 72, by Molly Peacock.
– The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, by John Vaillant.
– The Wave: In the Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean, by Susan Casey.
The jury will select one title to receive the $40,000 prize, which is presented by the British Columbia Achievement Foundation.
Finalists will be announced in December, and the award presentation will be Jan. 31 in Vancouver.
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University of B.C. professor Harry Karlinsky has written a unique novel called The Evolution of Inanimate Objects.
Karlinsky says in the book’s preface that he set out to write a treatise on the history of Canadian asylums but came across the name Thomas Darwin in his research.
This idea got him thinking about whether Thomas could be related to Charles Darwin, who famously wrote On the Origin of Species about his theory of evolution.
Karlinsky let his curiosity take his imagination away and ended up with an intriguing and readable novel about a fictional youngest son of Charles Darwin, whose belief that forks and spoons procreated and evolved landed him in a Canadian asylum.
The novel is published by Insomniac Press.
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Musician and author Harry Langan is launching two books and performing a three-act musical at The Guilt in Gastown on Monday at 6 p.m.
The two novels are mysteries: The Deep Sea Revelation and Dreams from Purgatory. The Guilt is at 1 Alexander St., below Chill Winston’s.
On Thursday, Nov. 25, the Robson Reading Series presents two B.C. authors with a special connection: Gurjinder Basran and Jack Hodgins. Basran’s first novel, Everything Was Good-Bye, was chosen by Hodgins as the winner of the 2010 Search for the Great B.C. Novel Contest.
Admission to the reading is free, and it takes place at 7 p.m. at the UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square.
Also on Thursday, Nov. 25, author Helen Piddington will launch her new book Rumble Seat: A Victorian Childhood Remembered, at the North Vancouver Library’s Capilano Branch, at 3045 Highland Blvd., at 7 p.m.
Admission is free, but to register, call 604-987-4471.
The Jewish Book Festival starts this weekend and runs to Nov. 25.
There are numerous events scheduled, with authors and personalities from across Canada, the U.S. and Israel.
For full details, visit www.jewishbookfestival.ca.
tsherlock@vancouversun.com