August 27, 2010

Did you ever wonder what happened to Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine, and Robin from Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale? Well, flash forward fifteen years and each one is at her own midlife crossroads and working on Getting to Happy. Re-visit these smart, sassy ladies in an excerpt from Terry McMillan's new novel Getting to Happy and enter for a chance to win your own copy from Penguin.ca.

Terry McMillan is the author of Waiting to Exhale, and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (both adapted into feature films), Mama, Disappearing Acts, The Interruption of Everything, A Day Late and a Dollar Short, It's OK If You're Clueless (McMillan's tips for college bound students) and the editor of Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction. Follow Terry McMillan on Twitter and find the author on Facebook.

Excerpt from Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan

I can't lie, I spent a lot of energy trying to give Isaac as much love as I possibly could as often as I could for as long as I could. Right after he lost his job, I tried to make him feel valued. I asked him to share his dreams with me. I listened. He changed his mind about getting his degree in engineering, opting instead for a construction management program. I paid his tuition. When he talked about all the things he wanted to build one day, I shared his enthusiasm. I also slowed down, said no to some travel. I tried to do what made my husband happy.

Over the years, Isaac stopped showing interest in what I felt or what I did. I had to bribe him to go to or do anything that didn't have an outcome. Whenever I wanted to talk about my stories, he always seemed to have the remote in his hand. I'm tired of not feeling respected. Since he's become a successful entrepreneur, Isaac's arrogance has pierced right through his beauty, which is why I don't like him.

Make no mistake, I still love Isaac. I haven't been in love with him for quite some time. It's not an easy thing to admit. I'm not one of those women who feels I need a man to complete me. I also don't think there's just one person in the world meant for you. Sometimes you luck up and sometimes your luck runs out. I'm beginning to wonder if a good marriage is even possible. What I do know is I'm tired of feeling navy blue when I have a right to feel lemon yellow.

Ever since I turned fifty I've become more aware of the passage of time and what I'm doing with it. If I dropped dead today, what legacy would I leave? Would I have done a lot of the things I wanted to do? Seen some of the places I wanted to see? And would I—if I took a few minutes to think about it—feel as if the time I was blessed with was well spent or had I just bullshitted my way through it?

Even though I have an interesting job, it still feels like I should be doing more. All I ever wanted was to do something with my life that would have a positive impact on other people. To do something to make us look in the mirror or slow down long enough to see what our behavior really says about us. Mostly about our inhumanity, since it leaves red marks. I believe the only way to evaluate how we're living is how we're not living.
This is why I'm on a mission to start doing things that make me feel good. I've made a vow to start eating healthier and exercising on a regular basis because I know better. I'm twenty-five pounds away from being fat. I don't want to have to start buying all my clothes in Encore at Nordstrom's. My goal is to be fit at fifty-two and sixty-two and seventy-two. I want to feel better than I look. I'm not trying to be a middle-aged centerfold, I just want to look at myself naked and not be disgusted. It may sound naïve, but I always thought as you got older the quality of your life would improve, that things would be smoother, calmer, and you could finally exhale. If only.

Reprinted by arrangement with Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from GETTING TO HAPPY by Terry McMillan.
Copyright © 2010 by Terry McMillan

BOOKALICIOUS BOOK GRAB GIVEAWAY

Penguin.ca has 5 copies of Getting to Happy to give to Bookalicious readers who leave a comment below. The BBGG is open to Canadian residents until Thursday, September 2, 2010. Winners will be picked using random.org. Good luck!

Relish reading,

Wanda Lynne Young

Bookalicious: Newsletter
Twitter: @YMCbookalicious
Facebook: wanda.lynne.young
Facebook: Bookalicious Fan Page
Website: Bookalicious

Labels/Tags: Wanda Lynne Young, Bookalicious, Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy, Waiting to Exhale, Penguin Group Canada,

Posted by WandaL at 13:39:29 View Comments | Click Here to Comment

August 24, 2010

It's my opinion that, Camilla Gibb should be declared a national treasure - never mind that she was born in London, England - we should claim her and use the bragging rights! Gibb actually grew up in Toronto and she was the first person in her family to earn a university degree. She holds a B.A. in anthropology (just like me!) and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Toronto. Gibb also earned a Ph.D. in social anthropology from Oxford. Camilla Gibb lives in Toronto, where she serves as Vice President of PEN Canada and Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto.

After reading her book Sweetness in the Belly, I was chomping at the bit to read her next novel. This is where I get to reveal the good news about her new novel The Beauty of Humanity Movement. Gibb has also authored Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life and she has also published numerous short stories, articles and reviews. Gibb was the winner of the Trillium Book Award in 2006, a Scotiabank Giller Prize short list nominee in 2005, winner of the City of Toronto Book Award in 2000 and the recipient of the CBC Canadian Literary Award for short fiction in 2001. Her books have been published in 18 countries and translated into 14 languages and she was named by the jury of the prestigious Orange Prize as one of 21 writers to watch in the new century. Enjoy the author Q&A with Camilla Gibb and check out The Beauty of Humanity Movement BBGG contest with Random House Canada. Vist Camilla Gibb's website for more information www.camillagibb.ca and you can connect with Camilla Gibb on Facebook. 

1. How would you summarize your book in one sentence?
It’s a story about the intersection of the lives of three very different people in Vietnam and how those relationships allow them each to reconcile themselves with aspects of the turbulent past.

2. How long did it take you to write this book?
Two years.

3. Where is your favorite place to write?
At the kitchen table on a sunny day.

4. How do you choose your characters’ names?
I choose ordinary names appropriate to the culture or context.  Extraordinary names draw too much attention to themselves and disrupt the reading. 

5. How many drafts do you go through?
Countless.  Maybe 25?

6. If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?
The Passion by Jeannette Winterson.

7. If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it?
A Vietnamese Natalie Portman.

8. What’s your favourite city in the world?
The one I have yet to visit; the stuff of daydreams.

9. If you could talk to any writer living or dead who would it be, and what would you ask?
Ryzard Kapucinski.  On balance: do you think we, as a species, are a good one?

10. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what kind?
I have been listening to the same pieces of contemporary classical music at the beginning of each writing day for the past decade.  Arvo Pärt’s Te Deum and Henrik Gorecki’s Symphony No.3.  I prefer music without words, or at least without words in English – too distracting.

11. Who is the first person who gets to you read your manuscript?
No one reads my work until it’s ready for editorial eyes.

12. Do you have a guilty pleasure read?
Hello Magazine.  The British edition.

13. What’s on your nightstand right now?
A lot of baby books.

14. What is the first book you remember reading?
A. A. Milne’s When We Were Six.

15. Did you always want to be a writer?
Yes.  But more a poet.

16. What do you drink or eat while you write?
Red Rose tea, strong, with milk, and whole wheat toast with butter and Marmite.

17. Typewriter, laptop, or pen & paper?
Laptop.

18. What did you do immediately after hearing that you were being published for the very first time?
No recollection, but it probably involved wine.

19. How do you decide which narrative point of view to write from?
It’s an unconscious decision.  The voice arrives and determines the pov.

20. What is the best gift someone could give a writer?
Time.
 

BOOKALICIOUS BOOK GRAB GIVEAWAY

Random House Canada is offering copies of The Beauty of Humanity Movement  for 2 lucky Bookalicious readers who leave a comment below. The BBGG is open to Canadian residents until, September 3, 2010. Winners will be picked using www.random.org.

Follow Random House Canada on Twitter: @RandomHouseCA  @BookLounge and Facebook: BookLounge.ca. Camilla Gibb Q & A and cover image published courtesy of Random House Canada. Author Photo © Kevin Kelly.

Good luck!

Relish reading,

Wanda Lynne Young

Bookalicious: Newsletter
Twitter: @YMCbookalicious
Facebook: wanda.lynne.young
Facebook: Bookalicious Fan Page
Website: Bookalicious

Labels/Tags: Wanda Lynne Young, Bookalicious, Camilla Gibb, Beauty of the Humanity Movement, Sweetness in the Belly, Canadian author, Random House Canada,

Posted by WandaL at 10:16:20 View Comments | Click Here to Comment

• PAGE
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• 13
• 14
• 15
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• 20
• 21
• 22
• 23