October 2009 - Posts
Introducing manga
By Laura
Manga is a Japanese word that is used for comics or print cartoons. In Japan single chapters of different manga series are usually printed together in monthly magazines (as thick as telephone books). A popular English example of this is the monthly “Shonen Jump” magazine published by Viz. [You can find it at several of our locations!]
When a series becomes popular enough, the chapters are then published together in volumes (called tankoubon), and frequently become the basis of many popular television, movies and animated cartoons (anime) in Japan.
Outside of Japan, the word “manga” generally refers to comics published in Japan for a Japanese market. However, the term can also refer to the unique art style associated with it. Original manga-style comics are drawn and published all over the world including S. Korea (called manhwa), China (called manua) and N. America (often called Amerimanga or OEL - Original English Language - manga).
Some unique characteristics of manga are:
1. They’re frequently read from right to left. This is because Japanese kanji is written from right to left, so in order to keep the integrity of the art/and the reading experience, English translators have kept the art oriented in this manner. It takes a bit of ‘getting-used-to’ but after you read a volume or two; you’ll forget that you’re reading the story “backwards”.
2. There is a unique iconography present in manga. Pictures and symbols take on meaning. For example, a tear-drop on the face usually expresses the distress of the character; a four-pronged star on the fore-head or hand expresses anger; and a runny nose/or violent nose bleed expresses some degree of sexual arousal. These are some of the more well known symbols, but as you read you will begin to understand and identify the more subtle meanings.
3. Often the stories are not contained within one volume. It is usual for a series or story arc to run for as long as 20 volumes before it is resolved. There are series where each volume is self-contained; but the long running story is usually one of the first things a manga reader will tell you they like about it.
Manga is one of my favourite things – and the library has it! Check our catalogue or come into any branch and check out the Calgary Public Library’s growing selection of titles! If you’re new to manga, and aren’t sure where to start, I suggest you read Jason Thompson's Manga: the complete guide. Or, read this blog often for updates and suggestions!
Illustration: Matsumoto Castle - Manga Style (Courtesy of PFC/ Flickr Creative Commons)
Calgary Public Library offers more than 100 titles in its BOOK CLUB BAG collection. This convenient service is designed for your book club to borrow 8-10 copies of a popular book for 6 weeks. Instant book notes featuring sample reviews and discussion questions are included in the bag. Go to the Calgary Public Library catalogue and type in “book club bag” under Quick Search, or browse the BCB collection, borrow or reserve a title that you like following this link:
BOOK CLUB BAG
More than 90 years before Twitter became the way to “discover what’s happening right now anywhere in the world”, Virginia Woolf wrote to her friend Violet Dickinson:
“Wonderful is the force of pen and ink. I like finding a pencil twitter on my plate at breakfast…”
Apparently, Virginia Woolf was well ahead of her time in social networking. Today, instead of pen and ink, there are cell phones and short text messages that we send to a group of people. Created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter “was designed to keep friends and colleagues informed about one's daily activities…” (PC Magazine Encyclopedia)
How did Twitter get its name?
Jack Dorsey said that they “wanted to capture the physical sensation that you are buzzing in your friend’s pocket, and we came up with the word ‘twitch’”. Not entirely happy, the creators consulted a dictionary for words around it – and Twitter (verb; to talk lightly and rapidly, esp. of trivial matters; chatter) was born.
Did you know that CPL Central (Calgary Public Library Central) is using Twitter?
If you already have a Twitter account, find out more about Library news and programs on Twitter.com. If you are a new user, sing up for an account and follow CPL Central. Check out what are we doing today and start receiving CPL Central tweets.
Have fun tweeting!
Twitter image courtesy of Matt Hamm (flickr.com)
THE 2009 ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDS
This year marks the 25th anniversary of The Arthur Ellis Awards, a prestigious national prize in the crime writing field. The awards are named after the nom de travailof Canada's official hangman. (The award statue itself is wooden model of a hanging man.The arms and legs move when the statue's string is pulled.) The Arthur Ellis Awards are presented in six categories for works in the crime genre published for the first time in the previous year by authors living in Canada, regardless of their nationality, or by Canadian writers living outside of Canada.
BEST NOVEL
Too close to home by Linwood Barclay (Bantam)
BEST FIRST NOVEL
Buffalo Jump by Howard Shrier (Vintage Canada)
BEST JUVENILE NOVEL
War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay (Penguin Canada)
BEST CRIME WRITING IN FRENCH
La Chemin des brumes by Jacques Côté (Alire)
BEST SHORT STORY
“Filmsong” by Pasha Malla
(Toronto Noir, Janine Armin and Nathaniel G. Moore, eds., Akashic)
BEST NONFICTION
Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It’s Still Broken by Michael Calce and Craig Silverman
(Penguin Canada)
BEST UNPUBLISHED NOVEL
Louder by Douglas S. Moles
DERRICK MURDOCH AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVMENT
Gail Bowen
Find the awarded titles and authors in our catalogue. Check the Calgary Public Library's rich mystery collection for much, much more!
Canadian flag courtesy of gamers600 (flickr.com)
Herta Műller, a Romanian-born German novelist, won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel judges praised her for depicting the ‘landscape of the dispossessed, with “the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose and constant return to the oppression, dictatorship and her own exile in her novel, poems and essays.
Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, emphasized Műller’s "extreme precision with words". "She has been living in a dictatorship which constantly misused and abused language, and this has forced a sort of skepticism in her regarding the use of words, the use of language," he said. "She has a very, very fine-tuned precision in her language."
The Land of Green Plums is considered by many to be her best novel. Her latest novel, Everything I Possess I Carry with Me, is “absolutely breathtaking”, added Englund.
Born in Romania in 1953, in a German-speaking village, she studied German and Romanian literature at the University of Timisoara. Here she became part a group of idealistic Romanian-German writers seeking freedom of expression under the Ceausescu dictatorship. After completing her studies she was employed as a translator in a machine factory, until she was fired for refusing to cooperate with the secret police.
Műller left for Germany with her husband, novelist Richard Wagner, in 1987, under pressure from the Romanian government. Over the following years she accepted lectureships at universities in Germany and abroad. She lives in Berlin.
For Herta Műller’s books, check Calgary Public Library catalogue, using the Author Search index.
What’s love got to do with it? The Romance Writers of America define a romance as having two basic elements: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending. This leaves the field wide open with a great deal of room for a variety in time, place, plot, character and style in spite of the formula. Historical or contemporary, humorous or dark, a gentle read or a spicy romp. Romances have seemingly endless genres, sub-genres and crossovers; something for everyone. If you are drawn to Romantic Suspense, try Suzanne Brockman or Iris Johansen. For the Paranormal fan, check out Mary Janice Davidson or Laurel K. Hamilton. Janette Oke writes Inspirational Romances and you can’t go wrong reading Georgette Heyer for Traditional Regency.
For further information on Romances, including author recommendations , web sites and blogs, click on the E-Library, choose Books and Authors, then choose Novelist plus and go to RA articles.