It’s that time of year when the literary prizewinners are announced. The Man Booker prize, the Governor General’s and the Giller prize are the ones which are surrounded by the most excitement and buzz, and much pomp and ceremony are attached to the presentations. This year the winner of the UK Man Booker, considered for thirty-five years to be the pinnacle of ambition for every fiction writer, is The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. For his efforts he receives $120,000 and will be guaranteed a worldwide readership, plus a dramatic increase in book sales.

The Giller Prize, which honours novels or short story collections, was  created in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his late wife Doris Giller. This year, Alice Munro walked off with $25,000 for her latest short story collection Runaway, the second time that this author has won the Giller. In 1998 she won with The Love of a Good Woman.

The Governor-General’s Prize, funded, administered and promoted by the Canada Council for the Arts, embraces many more categories of literature than the Man Booker and the Giller. Worth $15,000 to each of the winners, there are categories in both our languages for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature ( both text and illustration) and for the best translation. This year the English fiction prize was won by Miriam Toews (Winnipeg) for A Complicated Kindness. “Toew’s voice is electrifying, exciting and exact.  Her Nomi , a wannabe New Yorker in a small town that seems allergic to desire, is hilariously cynical and sweetly compassionate. An unforgettable coming-of-age story, this novel is melancholic and hopeful, as beautifully complicated as life itself. ”

Lt-Gen. Romeo Dallaire (Quebec City) won the English non-fiction prize for Shake Hands with the Devil: the failure of humanity in Rwanda. “An essential book that, in speaking of the Rwanda tragedy, points to some of our greatest failings as a civilized society. Out of his own experience, Romeo Dallaire has written a brave cautionary tale for our hard and selfish times”.

Kenneth Oppel (Toronto) won the children’s literature text prize for Airborn.

“Masterfully crafted and set in a highly creative world, this outstanding novel is a feat of powerful imagination. From cover to cover, the reader is in the hands of a superb writer”.

Here’s what the Governor-General had to say about children’s books;

“ It is important for children to find a book that they can have a unique and private connection with, just as they do with a special friend. The book becomes a child’s secret garden or undercover adventure. This year’s prize-winning books encourage such marvellous friendships to grow. 

In a world dominated by television, video games and the Internet, children’s authors and illustrators have an extraordinary challenge: to create books that stimulate the senses, the emotions and the imaginations of our young people and instill in them a lifelong love of reading”.

All these prize-winners are available at the library.

Storytime  for 3-5 years old will  break soon for Christmas. We will be starting again in January on Thursday mornings 10.00 am. Please call the library 7630-8026 to register and confirm.

Computer Lessons:    A new, free service will be offered, on Thursday afternoons starting in December. George (of Computer Tips) will help with any topics required by new users. Suggested lessons will include e-mailing, Internet searching and instant messaging. If you don’t know what these things are, or why you would want to do them, why not use the sign-up sheet in the library and find out?

New additions to our shelves:

Non-fiction.