Howard Engel chosen for CBC Book Club

 
Howard Engel, a Canadian treasure and creator of the beloved Benny Cooperman mysteries, is in the spotlight. He is featured on the CBC’s recently launched online Book Club - not one but two of his books have been chosen. In 2001 Howard had a stroke that resulted in the rare alexia sine agraphia, a condition that left him unable to read but capable of writing. His uplifting memoir The Man Who Forgot How to Read chronicles his incredible rehabilitation. He then penned Memory Book, a who-dunnit in which Benny, hampered by the same condition, solves a crime. Both books will delight readers across the country. Collectors will want all 12 Benny Cooperman books in the eye-catching Penguin re-issues.

Honoured as a writer whose work transcends the mystery genre, Howard received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Jewish Book Awards.

Along with Hannah Sung from the CBC, you can visit Howard at home if you click here:
http://tinyurl.com/dzt816
 

Vermeer's Hat
- an international success

Historian Timothy Brook's acclaimed Vermeer's Hat appeals to everyone from academics to punk rockers. It received the prestigious U.S. Mark Lynton Prize in History. Der Spiegel, the eminent German publication, champions it in a highly enthusiastic review. And Word Magazine reports that The Stooges frontman Iggy Pop is currently reading it. 

Der Spiegel states: "Canadian Timothy Brook is one of those historians who can tell world history like an adventure novel and economic history like a crime novel. After reading it one sees Vermeer's world differently. And one's own, too."

Classic Donna Morrissey 

Kit’s Law, Donna Morrissey’s debut novel first published in 1999 is a certified classic. It has just been re-released in Penguin’s Celebrations edition. Its paperback cover is reminiscent of the iconic softcover editions launched by the company 60 years ago.

Morrissey’s wonderful heroine Kit Pitman has attracted readers on far-flung shores, as her salty Newfoundland dialect has been rendered into German, Japanese, Swedish, and is coming soon in Italian.

Donna Morrissey has gone on to write three more novels, most recently What They Wanted which has been hailed as a masterpiece. But Kit, who at age 14, has to take charge of her mentally disabled mother and keep both of them from being consigned to an institution, continues to be a literary force. 

To see Donna at home, click here:
http://gov.ns.ca/govt/cometolife/media/vignettes/downloads/donna-morrissey.mov

CIA Approval for Tod Hoffman

The spooks at the CIA are recommending Tod Hoffman’s book, The Spy Within (Steerforth). It is the true and alarming story of Larry Chin, a Chinese spy who infiltrated the CIA for 30 years.

In his review of the book in The Intelligence Officer’s Bookshelf, a CIA publication, Hayden B. Peake writes “The Spy Within is a well-told story about a spy who beat the security system and couldn’t resist telling the FBI how he did it.”

Peake also notes: “The most interesting aspects of the case concern the details of his recruitment by the Chinese, how he was detected, and how he came to confess.” 

Koppel's Travels 

Tom Koppel is on another journey around the Pacific, including New Zealand and Norfolk Island.  He is interviewing scientists, sailors and Islanders gathering material for his work in progress, Mystery Islands: Discovering the Ancient Pacific.   His new book tells one of the great unknown dramas of human history—how the ancestors of today’s Polynesians and Micronesians began settling the vast Pacific islands at the same time Ramses II ruled Egypt 3400 years ago.

Ken McGoogan's Arctic Adventure

Ken McGoogan was in the midst of a 9-day Arctic adventure cruise when he took time out to go ashore to Clyde River for a series of CBC interviews for his new book Race to the Polar Sea about Arctic explorer Elisha Kent Kane.

That trip proved to be more of an adventure than Ken anticipated. He set out on a Zodiac piloted by John "Flipper" Suta. "Within minutes, in the fog and waves, we had lost sight of the ship," he says. As they pounded along at 25 kilometers and hour, they passed icebergs. Soon the ocean swells reached a height of 8 to 10 feet. "When we crested a magnificent swell and started down the other side, I heard someone laughing a wild-sounding, crazy-man laugh and wondered who it was. I glanced over at Flipper and, in that instant, with a rush of exhilaration, recognized the insane laughter as my own."