Book Ends: A year between the covers

May 2010
252 pages | ISBN 978-1-894987-42-4

Everyone’s favourite “old biddy from Gabriola Island,” Naomi Beth Wakan, captures a year of her obsessive reading in her new collection Book Ends: A year between the covers. This lively conversation covers almost every genre – fiction, essays, poetry, biography, science and the arts – and Naomi’s tart observations on both books and authors frees readers to consider what they actually enjoy reading, rather than what they have been told is good. Naomi’s compulsive reading rubs off on the reader, as they are encouraged to become more aware and involved in their own reading selection. Book Ends is a must for any book club member or bibliophile.

Reviews

Book Ends (Nathalie Foy, Nathalie Foy on Books about Books, 6/12/2011)
“Wakan gently points me to the truth that not all the books we bring home have to be fiction or bibliophilic. She reads books about math and makes them sound compelling. This is not an easy thing to do.”

Reading on the Sly (Kris Rothstein, Geist, 4/1/2011)
“Book Ends is chatty, disarming and sweetly sly, and all insatiable readers will find something enticing in its pages.”

Non-Fiction Reviews (Heather Birrell, Event Magazine, 2/1/2011)
“The author... seems to have little patience for literary snobbery, and is more interested in articulating her frank responses to what she reads, than in advancing a particular critical agenda or creating a writerly persona.”

Book Reviews (Diana Mumford, Canadian Teacher Magazine, 1/1/2011)
“In addition to the variety of subject matter and genre, what makes Book Ends so enjoyable are her often wry and honest comments about how the books she delves into relate to her life and her view of the world.”

Book Ends (Mary Ann Moore, Story Circle Book Reviews, 12/7/2010)
“Her poems, other writing, and sense of humour definitely lifted the spirits of this reader and I'm sure others will find her enthusiasm for life and learning quite contagious.”

Letter (Dr. Gary Prideaux, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University of Alberta, 7/12/2010)
"What I love about this book is that it is not 'about' any particular thing at all. It ranges over so many interesting topics, but it never rambles."

Bookends: a year in the life of Naomi’s book box (Derek Kilbourn, Gabriola Sounder News, 4/13/2010)
“What makes the book so enjoyable to read are the scenes Naomi creates. The reader can almost feel what it was like to be Naomi, curling up in the afghan she made for husband Eli (which she reminds the reader he never uses) and settling in to the latest read.”

Excerpts

Reader's Bibliography
Clink above to see which books Naomi Wakan discusses in Book Ends: A year between the covers

About the Author

Naomi Beth Wakan has written over thirty books, including Images of Japan, Segues, Late Bloomer: On Writing Later in Life, Compositions: Notes on the written word, Book Ends: A year between the covers and A Roller-coaster Ride: Thoughts on aging. Her book Haiku – one breath poetry was an American Library Association selection. Her essays, haiku and tanka have appeared in many magazines and anthologies and have been broadcasted on the CBC. Naomi lives on Gabriola Island with her husband, sculptor Elias Wakan.

She was named the first poet laureate of Nanaimo, BC, in 2013.

Other Titles by this Author

A Roller-coaster Ride: Thoughts on aging (2012)

Compositions: Notes on the written word (2008)

Late Bloomer: On Writing Later in Life (2006)

Segues (2005)