Tag Archives: Author Visit

An Evening with Marissa Stapley, Author of the Reese Book Club Dec’21 Pick

I’m so excited that Marissa Stapley, the author of Lucky—the Reese Book Club Dec’21 Pick, will be visiting the Vaughan Public Libraries via Zoom on May 26, 7:00 pm. Tickets will be on sale starting May 5 on Eventbrite. You are very welcome to join us for an evening of great conversation with Marissa!

I have to say this is such a page-turning, fun read. We are so busy these days and have to squeeze time to read. As entertainment goes, we often turn to the screen for instant gratification. But Lucky reminds us that reading can be fun and satisfying, too!  

What makes Lucky so fun? First, it’s a con-artist story. No one likes liars, swindlers, or grifters in real life—look at the damages Bernie Madoff and Elizabeth Holmes had done! But it’s a totally different story in books and movies. The con artists portrayed in pop culture are often magnetic, whether we like them or not. From The Talented Mr. Ripley to Catch Me If You Can to My Friend Anna, all these books were made into theatre or streaming service hits. And Lucky has also just been auctioned for a TV series!  Why do we like con-artist stories? Maybe 99% of us like the idea of Robin Hood robbing the rich and helping the poor; or, since we can’t read anyone else’s mind, we are curious about people’s psychology in confidence games?  I can’t tell you anything new about why we love con-artist stories, but I’m sure Marissa will be able to share her insights. She has done lots of research on grifting :).

But no matter how interesting a topic is, it needs a skilled writer to craft a good story. Marissa has proved her as a great storyteller in Lucky. The unclaimed lotto ticket idea is genius. Though Marissa humbly credits the DJ who gave her this idea, she successfully develops a storyline that grips the readers from the beginning to the end. All parts come together tightly but it doesn’t feel rushed. The past and present parallel narratives is very smart. The strategy definitely helps shape Lucky’s back story and draw out readers’ empathy for her. Lucky is believable, not cliché, and most importantly, fun!

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Genevieve Graham: Making the Lesser-Known Canadian History Accessible

On November 18, Genevieve Graham, the Globe and Mail No. 1 bestselling author of Letters Across the Sea and The Forgotten Home Child, will be visiting Vaughan Public Libraries’ Adult Book Club via Zoom. Despite all the battles that the pandemic brought upon, it did teach us one useful thing – to embrace the virtual meeting space, where we get to meet Genevieve, who’s now far away in Nova Scotia. Please register here and enjoy an evening of good conversations with Genevieve!

Genevieve is known for writing about the little-known or much-forgotten Canadian history. The Forgotten Home Child is about over 120,000 destitute children shipped from England to Canada to be used as labour on Canadian farms and households between 1869 and 1932. The book has first made me aware of the abuse and stigmatization that these home children received. And her current bestseller, Letters Across the Sea, has introduced me to the anti-semitic Christie Pits Riot in 1933 and the suffering of the undertrained Canadian soldiers at the inhuman Japanese camps during WWII.

Those heart-wrenching stories have made Genevieve and readers shed millions of tears. But Genevieve’s writing has made the cruel, hard facts digestible as well. Genevieve reminds me of Pierre Berton, the historian who had popularized Canadian history with his light, fast-paced writing style, just all in non-fiction. We should know historical fiction is as powerful as non-fiction history books. In Genevieve’s words, “History itself is in black and white. It feels far away and cold. Bringing the colour of fictional characters into a well-researched point in history, essentially breathing life back into the history, makes the past real. It’s much more difficult to forget a story if you care about the characters, and so history is remembered.” She believes “historical fiction has a huge responsibility: we must teach the mind but also touch the heart.” And she has done this job brilliantly!

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Fit for a Queen: In Conversation with Jennifer Robson

In Conversation with Jennifer Robson
On November 19, Vaughan Public Libraries is proud to present In Conversation with Jennifer Robson in partnership with our friends at Hoopla and HarperCollins. Pour yourself a cuppa and join us! 

the gown book coverIf, like me, you are still missing Downton Abbey, or are not-so-patiently waiting for the next season of The Crown (November 15 on Netflix!), why not sate your appetite with some historical fiction? Jennifer Robson’s The Gown is a fascinating peek into a largely overlooked part of history. I can tell you exactly what Kate Middleton’s and Meghan Markle’s wedding dresses looked like, but I could not tell you who designed them (upon googling: Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, and Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy, respectively). Even less could I tell you who made those gorgeous gowns by hand. 

The titular gown here refers to the one worn by then-Princess Elizabeth during her wedding to Prince Phillip. Robson’s novel follows three women: Ann and Miriam in 1947, and Heather in 2016. Ann and Miriam are both embroiders working for the prestigious British designer Norman Hartnell, tasked with creating a wedding gown befitting a future queen. In modern day, Heather is left behind an expensive piece of embroidered silk by her grandmother, and sets out overseas to piece together the life of this mysterious woman. Robson’s tale takes us from war-ravaged England to current-day Toronto and London, tracing the lives of these three very different women.  

Fans of historical fiction are in for a treat with The Gown; meticulously researched, the novel’s sense of place and time will envelop you, like the warm and welcoming glow of Hartnell’s workshop. And it’s no wonder Robson recreates this setting beautifully, as she is a scholar of the economic and social history of early 20th century Britain. Particularly apt is her doctoral thesis, which focused partially on the rationing of clothing during WWII. This academic background is seeped into her writing, in small details that bring a sense of tangible reality to this historical tale. Interestingly enough, one of the doubts of my reading experience was just how nice everyone at Hartnell is. I thought, there’s no way everyone gets along this well. Where’s the workplace drama? Where are the rude superiors? Surely, at a prestige fashion house like Hartnell, everyone would be posh and snobby? Not the case, it turns out! In an interview with the Thunder Bay Public Library, Robson recounts story from her on-the-ground research at the former Hartnell location in London, in which the head seamstress (overseeing the making of Elizabeth’s gown) “invited every woman in the sewing workroom to add a stitch to the princess’s gown; that way they could all rightly say they had helped to make it”.  

elizabeth wedding dress

Princess Elizabeth on her wedding day, 1947

Even in real life, Hartnell’s legacy’s shows up in heartwarming places. The most recent royal wedding took place in July of this year, between Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. Just as her grandmother—the current queen—was married following the devastation of the war, and thus had to ration the cloth for her own dress, Beatrice was married in the midst of a pandemic. Rather than source a new dress, Beatrice chose to rework an old gown of Elizabeth’sa 1960s Hartnell design. This sense of warmth, of teamwork and just general loveliness saturates every page of The Gown. Even when Ann is freezing in her little council house, in a winter so cold it might as well be Canadian, the coziness of the house, the hearth of the fireplace, and the kettle on the stove are a comfort to read about.  

Just in time for gloomy November, we’re happy to bring some much needed comfort into your homes. Robson will be interviewed by local writer, author, and podcaster Louise JohnsonJohnson has written for The Globe and MailFlare Magazineand The Huffington Post. If you are one of the millions of quarantine bread bakers, you might want to check out her article on the science behind the phenomenon. Johnson has also worked as a professional speaker for the University of Toronto and the Harvard Business Association, among others! Her bookish podcast, the Word Weaver Podcast, is available on Apple, Stitcher, and Spotify.  

Reserve your spot for In Conversation with Jennifer Robson today! You can check out a copy of The Gown from your local library branch in paper format, or digitally on Hoopla and Overdrive!