Wednesday, October 22, 2008 7:00 P.M.
This evening's wines sponsored by Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery
Andrew Pyper
From the acclaimed, bestselling author Andrew Pyper, a suspenseful page turner that explores the repercussions of that most dishonest of thefts: stealing another’s story and calling it your own. At once a complex and compulsive read, The Killing Circle explores the side effects of an increasingly fame-mad culture, where even the staid realm of literature can fall prey to ravenous ambition and competition. “The Killing Circle is one great read: darkly lyrical and atmospheric.” “The Killing Circle will keep you up one night reading and another four checking the locks on the doors”.
Alissa York
A stunning novel of loss, memory, despair and deliverance by one of Canada’s best young fiction writers, set on a Mormon ranch in nineteenth-century Utah. Inspired by the real events of the Mt. Meadows Massacre in 1857. Effigy is a delicate blend of fact with fiction in a haunting story of a family separated by secrets and united by faith. "Alissa York's Effigy is a historical fiction almost frighteningly real. Her creation of Erastus Hammer’s four wives and complex household is so precise and convincing, that the only uncertainty is how to get back to the present again. This is a rewarding read. Don’t miss it."
Monday, November 10, 2008 7:00 P.M.
This evening's wines sponsored by Legends Estates Winery
Kenneth J. Harvey
Fifteen years in the making, this book is one Canada’s “heavyweight champ of brash and beautiful literature” was meant to write. An epic masterpiece about Newfoundland’s working class, Blackstrap Hawco spans more than a century in gorgeous and widely varied prose, reminding us that even when writing about the degradation of identity and language, Kenneth Harvey does it magnificently. “Blackstrap Hawco and his people are as vivid as the blood they spill. A journey significant to us all; universal in its grip upon the human soul. Kenneth J. Harvey demonstrates the pulse of what it means to be alive.”
Fred Stenson
From award-winning author Fred Stenson– a richly evocative new novel, at once brutal and tender, spare of language, and profoundly moving – a major work to thrill his fans and win him many new ones. In 1899, Frank Adams, a cowboy from Pincher Creek, joins the Canadian Mounted Rifles and sets out to defend the Empire in South Africa. There against a landscape of extremes, Frank forms intense bonds with Ovide Smith, a reluctant soldier from the Alberta plains, and Jeff Davis, son of a Blood Indian. “The Great Karoo, a truly magnificent novel by one of Canada’s greatest living writers."
Monday, December 1, 2008 7:00 P.M.
This evening's wines sponsored by Malivoire Wine Company
Helen Humphreys
From the author of The Lost Garden comes Helen Humphrey’s new World War Two novel, Coventry. In a story of breathtaking beauty, with wonderous poetic style that has earned her international acclaim, Helen Humphreys creates the terror of the infamous Second World War bombing raid on Coventry. Coventry is a gripping story, at once tense and lyrical, shocking and exquisite. Touching on themes of love, loss, loneliness and remembrance, Humpheys has crafted a story that will seize your heart and imagination.
Kristen den Hartog
The Occupied Garden portrays the plight of the Netherlands, while intimately following the den Hartog family from rumours of war in the 1930s to their emigration to Canada in the 1950s. With extraordinary tenderness, novelist Kristen den Hartog and her sister Tracy Kasaboski present a wonderfully admiring view of their grandparents during the turbulent years of the German occupation of the Netherlands. From family lore, letters and diaries, the granddaughters piece together this story of courage. “Amazingly detailed and moving … an heirloom story … a personal, unsentimental, intensely compelling ‘memoir’”.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 7:00 P.M.
This evening's wines sponsored by Featherstone Winery and Vineyard
Mary Lou Finlay
The As It Happens Files: May Contain Nuts, by one of Canada’s most beloved and trusted journalists, Mary Lou Finlay, is a celebration of CBC Radio’s longest-running current affairs program. The book recalls the great stories and personalities during Mary Lou’s eight years as co-host of As It Happens. The As It Happens Files entertains, amuses, and inspires. From the hilarious to the poignant; from the eccentrics to the everyday man Mary Lou’s book is another, shining star in her illustrious 35-year career of broadcast journalism.
Kenneth Whyte
From the editor-in-chief of Maclean’s, Canada’s weekly current affairs magazine, comes a revealing re-interpretation of the controversial legacy of one of the greatest newspapermen of them all, William Randolph Hearst. Whyte vividly recreates the years the young upstart spent taking on the media barons of the wealthiest, most aggressive newspaper market the world has ever known. “A lively, compelling, and impeccably researched piece of popular history.” “I’ve been watching him, and I notice that when he wants cake, he wants cake; and he wants it now. And I notice that after a while he gets his cake.”– Senator George Hearst on his son, William Randolph Hearst.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009 7:00 P.M.
This evening's wines sponsored by Calamus Estate Winery
Edeet Ravel
From Edeet Ravel, internationally acclaimed author of Ten Thousand Lovers, comes a deeply personal and emotionally resonant novel about an unexpected friendship between two young women. Maya and Rosie meet one day at the local dry cleaner’s and their instant friendship quickly blossoms into an inseparable bond. Both are children of Holocaust survivors, but Maya refuses to become entangled in her mother’s past, while Rosie is drawn into her parent’s haunted world. Your Sad Eyes and Unforgettable Mouth is at once a novel about the strength and nature of friendship, the weight of the secrets we keep, and whether or not we are ever able to truly live beyond the past.
Lee Gowan
From award-winning author Lee Gowan comes Confession, a powerful novel that portrays how one fateful, brutal day in the life of a young prairie man reverberates far beyond imagining – an insightful portrayal of the struggle between fate and faith. In a small town in Saskatchewan, Dwight Froese confesses to having killed his father in a duel, maintaining that he was avenging the murder of his mother, whose body had been found floating in a nearby creek the day before. But when the coroner makes a startlingly ruling Dwight is shattered. In the explosive tale that follows, he attempts to reconcile the violent legacy he has inherited with what it will take to forge a new life for himself.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 7:00 P.M.
This evening's wines sponsored by Cave Spring Cellars
Paul Quarrington
From the author of King Leary, last year’s winner of CBC Radio’s Canada Reads, comes The Ravine. Every childhood contains at least one “ravine” – one episode where the normal fabric of everyday life rip’s and the monster comes roaring out. But only Giller-nominated novelist Paul Quarrington could make that moment both profound and profoundly funny. “Quarrington writes with a light touch and a wry sense of humour throughout, and has produced that rarest of beasts: a Canadian novel that will make you laugh, as well as think and feel.” “…terrific read”
Terry Fallis
The Best Laid Plans is a story of a reluctant political candidate who consents to run in a federal election with the proviso that he can’t campaign, give media interviews, canvass door-to-door, attend all candidate meetings, use lawn signs, have contact with campaign workers or even be in the country at the time of the election. All does not turn out as planned in this certain-to-lose strategy and the result is the kind of comedy that won Fallis the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. “amusing, enlightening – and Canadian, and it deftly explores the Machiavellian machinations of Ottawa’s political culture…this very funny book has something for everyone.”