Share your summer reading paradise and get a $5 coupon!

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Laura

Bookclub-in-a-Box wants to hear summer reading suggestions from all of our readers—and what’s more, we want to give a $5.00 coupon to every single person who shares with us!

Send answers to all three of these questions to laura@bookclubinabox.com by Tuesday, May 22 to enter:

• Which book are you most looking forward to reading this summer?
• Where in the world (your back porch? a desert island? anywhere!) would you most like to read your book?
• What would you like to eat and/or drink while reading your book?

The Bookclub-in-a-Box Readers’ Reading List will be posted on our blog on May 23, along with the first name and last initial of each entrant.

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Book Club Spotlight: Smart B*tches Who Read

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Laura

Once every month, we’ll share the motivation and passion that drives one book club — it could be yours! — from across the globe. These are the people who have combined the solitary pleasure of reading a book with the joy of sharing, discussing, and debating it in a social setting.

May’s spotlight features Sheryl of League City, Texas, whose book club Smart B*tches Who Read has already reached 72 members.

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Contest: Win 2 tickets to the Pulitzer-winning show Lost in Yonkers!

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Laura

This contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! However, you can still get an exclusive discount on all Lost in Yonkers tickets—just use the coupon code BOOKCLUB20 (caps sensitive) to receive 20% off any ticket purchase!

This spring, the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company is bringing you Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play Lost in Yonkers (May 12–June 10), starring everyone’s favourite TV mom—Marion Ross. Everyone loved her as Mrs. C in Happy Days, and now she will star in this very funny, heartwarming Neil Simon classic, along with comedic actresses Linda Kash (Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman) and Sheila McCarthy (I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing and Little Mosque on the Prairie).

Bookclub-in-a-Box is giving away two tickets to the June 3 performance of Lost in Yonkers, which will include a special post-show Q&A to address the social issues in the play. To enter, just email your full name to laura@bookclubinabox.com by May 14, 2012. Good luck!

The post-show Q&A on June 3, called “In the Theatre, Everyone is Naked: Finding Our Humanity Through the Stage,” will include a discussion about the theatre’s role and power in laying bare our universal humanity, with a focus on our common and individual social reactions to issues of mental health and family history. Joining the cast will be Dr. Vivian Rakoff, professor emeritus and chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

In addition, ticketholders on June 3 will be eligible to win a Bookclub-in-a-Box prize pack, including a print discussion guide and novel; a Bookclub-in-a-Box collectible mug; and two tickets to any 2012-2013 performance in the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company series. Winner will be announced immediately following the show, and must be in attendance to claim their prize.

To book tickets for June 3 (or any other date), we’re offering a special discount for all Bookclub-in-a-Box readers—just use the coupon code BOOKCLUB20 (caps sensitive) at the show’s website, and you’ll receive 20% off any ticket purchase.

About the show: Lost in Yonkers follows an eccentric New York family in crisis during the summer of 1942. Old country rules clash with new world ideals as a strong-willed grandmother struggles to rule her children and grandchildren with an iron fist. This coming of age story is both humorous and touching as it follows a dysfunctional family learning to cope and evolve during incredibly stressful times.

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Book review: Living Legacies Volume III, edited by Liz Pearl

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Laura

Reviewed by Marilyn Herbert

When you’re on to a good thing, it is wise to keep going. Liz Pearl has not only done that, but she has maintained the richness in this third volume of Living Legacies: A Collection of Writing by Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women. With each book and each personal story, I find myself ever more deeply engrossed in the common themes of identity and relationships.

Many of the stories in Volume I inspired readers from the inside out as they dealt with individual development. In the second book, the stories came more predominantly from the perspective of the generations of women who were confident in their identity and were ready to pass their knowledge along to their daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and friends. In the current collection of stories, many of the tales focus on the connections of women to the outer fabric of their culture and/or religion. An interesting feature of this gathering of thoughts by Canadian Jewish women is that some were born outside of Canada, yet the “Canadian” part of their Jewish identity is clear in every narrative.

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Reviewer Spotlight: A self-proclaimed nerd’s take on A Visit From the Goon Squad

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Laura

A few weeks ago we asked all of our readers to send in their book reviews of A Visit From the Goon Squad for our Reviewer Spotlight contest—out of all those entries, this very personal review was the one we chose to feature.

Review by Helene Paquin

I’m not sure what led me to reserve this book at my local library, but I’m glad I did. Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad is an entertaining read and I’ll be sure to pick up her previous books when I return this one. Contrary to her journalistic background, she uses a different writing style for each chapter and ignores the rule that stories usually follow a sequential timeline—it’s the opposite of a newspaper article.

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An inside report from the 2012 Bookworm International Literary Festival in Beijing

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Laura

Photo by Leah Duck.

By Michele Kesten, Bookclub-in-a-Box’s China Correspondent

One of my favourite haunts in Beijing, The Bookworm, is a comfortable bookstore, library, café, and event venue spread throughout three adjoining rooms. Things are really hopping these days in this unique centre, which hosts the annual Bookworm International Literary Festival—a three-week celebration of literature and ideas that includes book talks, panel discussions, debates, film screenings, and so much more. Both English-speaking and Chinese-speaking book lovers anticipate this event, and tickets sell out early. This year’s festival wrapped up last Friday, and attracted a wide range of readers and authors.

Friends and I attended a fascinating discussion with Toronto author Jonathan Campbell on the history of rock ‘n’ roll in China. I had an early taste of what we’d hear from the Bookclub-in-a-Box interview with Jonathan last month about his new book, Red Rock: The Long Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll, which he wrote after 10 years as a part of the Beijing music scene.

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