Fall is book season as the growing number of new titles on bookstore shelves and the non-stop parade of readings can attest. This week sees several book launches and events around the city which provides the perfect warmup for Wordfest — that marathon of reading writing and live literary events starting later this month.
Bill Reynolds a Ryerson School of Journalism prof and former editor of defunct Toronto publication Eye Weekly (and prior to that a former editor of CJSW’s VOX) is in Calgary for the local launch of Life Real Loud: John Lefebvre Neteller and the Revolution in Online Gambling. The book tells the page-turning story of Lefebvre the music-loving “hippie lawyer” from Calgary who co-founded Neteller a small Canadian start-up that processed payments between players and online gambling arenas and who became a multi-millionaire. After living the high life for a while — Malibu beach houses luxury cars a jet for flying to rock concerts — he started giving his money away to David Suzuki the Dalai Lama and other worthy causes. But the story doesn’t end on that feel-good note because then the FBI showed up. Reynolds will be at Shelf Life Books on Thursday October 2.
On the same evening another book will be launched at Memorial Park Library where local writer Ken Rivard will read from his 10th book Motherwild. Rivard who writes poetry fiction and children’s literature has been nominated for several awards in Alberta and has served as writer-in-residence for both the Calgary Public Library and the Writers Guild of Alberta. His latest release explores the life and relationships of a boy growing up on a working-class street in Montreal (Rivard’s home town) ending with a surprising revelation before picking up again years later. (Rivard will also be at Owl’s Nest Bookstore on October 11 and at Shelf Life on October 30.)
Pages Books is teaming up with its Plaza Theatre neighbour again for Pages at the Plaza on Saturday October 4. The event will mark World Animal Day with author Else Poulsen whose book Barle’s Story chronicles a polar bear’s recovery from life as a circus act in the tropics. Poulsen will be joined by Dr. Olivier Berreville with Canadians for Ethical Treatment of Food Animals (CETFA) and a member of Animal Defenders International. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and admission is free. (If you go be sure to check out the basement of Pages Books next door where the store now sells used and clearance titles.)
Finish off the week back at Shelf Life Books where local environmental crusader Chris Turner launches a new collection of essays How to Breathe Underwater: Field Reports from an Age of Radical Change. Following the success of his previous works including the most recent War on Science this collection is described as “a fractal portrait of a society in rapid flux.”
