Due to a work schedule that, over the past few months, has included evenings and weekends, I haven’t had a chance to attend many of the wonderful events that publishers treat book lovers to in Toronto. This Random House event was the first I’ve attended in a long time, and what an evening it was!

Random House of Canada certainly knows how to treat their guests. They served perogies, crepes, cheese and crackers, prosecco …and, my personal favourite, blue martinis!

And books, of course. Lovely, lovely books!

Edward Rutherfurd is an absolutely charming man. He’s on Twitter, but admits he doesn’t tweet much — his publishers supply most of his content. Referring to his novels, which usually tip the scales at almost 1000 pages each, he quipped, “When you write as I do, Twitter, as you can imagine, is a challenge.” He does however check his Facebook page regularly, and responds personally as much as he can to the people who post there.

He told us quite a few fun facts as well, for example, the Mona Lisa was stolen in the early 20th century, and Pablo Picasso was accused of the theft. I don’t know if that’s included anywhere in his novel, but I at least want to find out more about it. During the book signing, he asked each of us bloggers for our card or blog URL. “I need to educate myself about these things,” he said. I told him that my sister loved Russka, and he admitted it was a very difficult book to write. In fact, at one point, his editor came to his house, sat on his couch and told him she wouldn’t leave until he finished the book!

Danielle Trussoni spoke as well, and talked to us a bit about her book. She didn’t set out to write about angels, she said. Rather, she was doing research for a different book when she came across some fascinating information that eventually led to her writing Angelology, and then Angelopolis. She isn’t particularly religious, but she did grow up in Catholic school, so has been aware of a certain degree of angel mythology since then.

You can follow her on Twitter, @daniellemybella, “my bella” being her father’s name for her when she was a child.

GIVEAWAY! 

[Link to Rafflecopter giveaway at the bottom of the post]

Random House of Canada generously offered us bloggers a chance to grab another copy of both authors’ books to get signed and offer as a giveaway on our blog. So good news to all my Canadian readers: you can enter below for a chance to win either Edward Rutherfurd’s Paris or Danielle Trussoni’s Angelopolis! (Giveaway open only to Canadians, I’m afraid, as shipping overseas, particularly for the 800+ page hardcover Paris, will be rather costly.)

Full disclosure: I haven’t read either book, nor have I read any of either author’s other works. I did consider including the giveaway with my review, but given my current reading pile, Paris may be out in paperback by then. And I want to share these books with you now! So for information on the books, check out the descriptions on the Random House of Canada website:

Angelopolis by Danielle Trussoni

Paris by Edward Rutherfurd

Edward Rutherfurd also gave a teaser description about Paris: A woman falls in love with a Frenchman, except circumstances force them apart, so she settles for an Englishman (“always a poor second,” he quipped). Then years later, she returns to Paris and sees the Frenchman again at a party, except while she has aged, he has not, and of course, it turns out, that’s the Frenchman’s son, who happens to be a friend of Hemingway. (“Sorry,” he said. “You know I have to put things like that in.”) She falls in love with this young man, but her daughter does as well.

My impression? Paris may seem like a hefty 800+ page tome, but it sounds like a really fun soap opera read… and I mean that in a good way. Somewhat like Downton Abbey but intergenerational, and in Paris!

Click here to enter! (Canada only)