About KIRBC

Welcome to the online home of the Keepin’ it Real Book Club. This is not your run-of-the-mill, namby-pamby book club. You don’t have to read the same book unless you want to. You don’t have to discuss character development. You certainly don’t have to discuss post-modern expressions of psycho-sexual development or make reference to Butler, Bhabha, Nietzsche or any of their ilk (Though all of these things are fair game if you really feel the need). You just have to love books (any books!) and be prepared to gush about them. Sound good? Welcome to the KIRBC.

The Heart of the Story:

A History

Once upon a time, somewhere between Ottawa and Toronto, ten students embarked on a quest to expand their minds, discuss the books they loved, and get an ultimately useless degree. Much to their chagrin, they soon discovered that this was not the romantic notion they once believed. It was competitive, pretentious and high-pressure. It was riddled with unnecessary phallic showmanship and nihilistic philosophers. There was no room for breaking down ideas or egos, for laughter, for in-class comraderie or for movie references. And so one day, in Mac-Corry 508, a mission statement was born – to “keep it real”. To help others, to bring unabashed enthusiasm and personality into class. In short, to let a little air into stagnant, oppressive atmosphere of Watson 406.

And then one day, during a meditative trudge through the relentless Kingston precipitation, Jen reached enlightenment. And it was this: to further the Keepin’ it Real Mission, they needed to share what united them – a passion for books – to be able to proclaim their love for books – any books – not just the ubiquitous To the Lighthouse (No offense to Ginny)– from the rooftops. Furthermore, she realized this group had a wealth of reading experience between them, and undoubtedly had fantastic recommendations they had never shared. It was a chance to gush, rant and rave about books without an academic beard.

And so the first meeting of the Keepin’ it Real Book Club was called at Jen’s home, Sweet Chili Heat, and the room buzzed with excitement. This was no ordinary book club. Everyone did not have to read the same book. The books did not have to be dissected or debated. The idea was simply to present a book and talk about why it was wonderful. The secretary, Miss Anna Moorhouse, dutifully took notes for future reference and entertainment. Everyone had a book they were dying to talk about (Jill usually had several). Long after the books had been passed, people stayed, happy to talk about anything and everything, freed from the shackles of academic discourse.

The KIRBC continued to meet bi-weekly, fortified by tea and delicious baked goods from Jill and Melissa (double underscore) Shaw. Now, although the inaugural members have been forced to part ways, the spirit of the KIRBC lives on. This website is both a representation and a continuation of that spirit.

A Who’s Who

The KIRBC would never have become its vibrant, engaging self without its members who are a living testament to keeping it real.

Blog Contributors

JK is the founder and President of the Keepin’ it Real Book Club. She’s also the principal blogger here at the digital digs of the KIRBC, where you’ll find her thoughts on most books she reads and on occasional publishing hullaballoo.  At real-life KIRBC meetings, her recommendations tend to be novels that make people cry – thus exposing androids in our midst. She also has retained all her childish enthusiasm for picture books and YA novels.

Although elsewhere defined as KIRBC’s ‘new part-android correspondent,’ Cheese also enjoys novels that make people cry. She also enjoys novels that make people angry, grotesque and inappropriate adult picture books that make people laugh, and whatever publishers will throw at her for free. Although Cheese has a background in / crush on dead languages, the tech life seems to follow her around like MA students follow Nietzsche. She has recently been able to pair this hostile takeover with a longtime love of books, and is exceedingly happy about it.

Emily has been addicted to books for as long as she can remember. As a young girl, her weekly fix came in the form of Scholastic, and she would do whatever she could to scrape together the money to buy just one more book. The local library was always a great help, offering her a ready supply of books for little or no money. With no limit to her reading possibilities, Emily fell deeper and deeper into the literary world. After graduating from high school, Emily pulled herself away from books, and began taking courses in science, but unable to resist the temptation for long, by her second year she was back in the world of reading, but now it wasn’t just the minor leagues anymore. No, now Emily was into the hard stuff: literature. Emily was so hooked on books, that after graduating from Western, she went to Queen’s to do her Master’s in English, and there met a group of poeple with a similar problem: they were also addicted to books. Some loved the look of a good book, some loved the smell, some loved the font, some the language, but all were united in their inability to resist a piece of literature. Emily is proud to report that, although she is no longer studying books in the academic sense, she is still 100% addicted, with no hope of recovery in sight. She now works to keep it real by baking and decorating beautiful desserts.She has a cat named Tennyson who shares her love of books (though he mostly sleeps on them).

“I see people gathered for KIRBC,” said Anna, “spread upon the couches as jam spreads upon a piece of toast.”

Anna, once called the “Mary-Ann of our Babysitter’s Club,” has always taken her position as KIRBC’s Poet Laureate and first Secretary very seriously. Having moved back to the rainy shores of Vancouver in June 2007, she now acts as one of KIRBC’s West Coast ambassadors. Her areas of reading speciality include (but are not limited to) children’s lit, teen fiction, sci fi, and recent editions of Lonely Planet Canada. Her website is: www.annamoorhouse.com

Melissa (aka M-Shaw) is quite an interesting specimen. Country to the core (minus her obsession with Will and Grace), she loves all things in nature. Peeing cats, however, seem to be her lot in life. Ah yes, and barking dogs. Perhaps “bush nature” is more appropriate. Her idea of heaven is a small cabin situated in an isolated area in which a “Captain Jack Sparrow/Brad Paisley” hybrid awaits. When it comes to reading material, Melissa is addicted to all literatures of the First and Second World Wars, especially to the poetry of Wilfred Owen. To remain sane, she relies on book recommendations from all members of KIRBC, competitive sports, and knitting.

And Introducing…

Courtney is very excited to have been invited into the world of KIRBC as the official theatrical ambassador where she will be relating her adventures in the land of plays and productions. Courtney completed her B.A. at Queen’s University in Drama and Music and then went on to pursue her M.Mus at The Boston Conservatory in Musical Theatre. She has now returned to her hometown Toronto and continues to enjoy over-saturating herself with productions at the Shaw Festival and Stratford, and can be spotted spending many an hour at the TheatreBooks store drooling over the works of Chekhov, Shakespeare, Shaw, and Canadian playwrights such as Ann-Marie Macdonald and Linda Griffiths (to name just a few). Beyond books, she is looking forward to meetings filled with knitting lessons (apparently there is some catching up to do), baked goods (banana-chocolate-chip-anything) and tea (preferably vanilla, with a few drops of skim milk).

KIRBC Alumni

As one of the co-founders of the original Keepin’ It Real Campaign, Jamie has devoted her life’s work to everything “real,” such as dancing it out and making sure there is always enough P-Hut and milk at KIRBC meetings. She has recently obtained her B.Ed from the University of Windsor[ia] and intends to use this degree to spread realness to as many students as possible. One of her life missions is to eradicate the use of the hamburger essay in high-schools. Jamie joined the book club quite late in the game; however she made up for her absence with captivating book selections like “The Ralph Wiggum Book” and “Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones” by Alvin Schwartz. Jamie finds it hard to actually finish a book that is not intended for ten-year-olds, but she always makes a point of seeing the movie to see how it ends. Her literary taste may be less than sophisticated, but her knitting style is mesmerizing.

Gillian, the most overzealous member of the KIRBC and the one who persuaded almost the entire group to learn to knit, currently resides in Busan, South Korea, where she teaches English to elementary and middle school students. She is not indiscriminate in her reading, it’s just that she’s plagued by indecision and she loves them ALL. Her many and diverse interests include Canadian and Modernist Literature, correcting grammar, trying to sneak minilectures on literature into her CNN and rudimentary conversation classes, coping with the disappointment of finding no new English books in the Foreign section week after week, Konglish, and compulsive yarn buying. If only she could combine her two obsessions, literature and knitting, into one pastime, she would have the power to destroy the universe (but would choose not to).

Jennifer (aka Curty) has been known to enjoy life-altering and thought-provoking literary masterpieces (circa 2006-07), but more recently has turned her attention towards the works of Stephanie Meyer and the authors of People.com, as well as the compelling documentary series “America’s Next Top Model”. She is currently reading Eat, Pray, Love and love/hates it. (More on that at the next KIRBC session)

Jennifer’s literary BFFs include Ms. Jane Austen, the fabulous and slightly crazy Bronte sisters, and most recently Dauphine De Maurier. While some of Jennifer’s favourite novels have been written in third person, writing a bio of herself in this narrative style stresses her out.

Grant
born: april 24, 1981
city: scarborough, ontario
relationship to family: AWKward
relationship to books: much easier as they drink less
favorite authors: virginia woolf, michael ondaatje, michel foucault, william faulkner, william shakespeare (is anyone ever pompous enough to put him on their list? well i am),
least favorite: jane austen (except Northanger Abbey which is great, really Emily it is), d.h. lawrence, bhabha [sic]
favorite quote: “Meat! Meat! Meat!”
least favorite: “Veg! Veg! Veg!”
currently reading: “Writing Korean 1- For Beginners”
would rather be reading: US Magazine
little known fact: speaks more Korean–and less German–than any Queen’s English MA graduate of 2007
contribution to KIRBC: priceless

Kara has trouble with deadlines. But we love her anyway.

Originally from South Africa, Elize fufills the role of “the other” in the group. She has a penchant for post-colonial literature, the P &P mini-series, cooking delcious treats and travelling. She has made a successful transition from academia to adulthood as a marketing coordinator for an engineering/architecture firm in Edmonton.