October 17, 2007
Adria Vasil
When the world’s environmental woes get you down, turn to Ecoholic. Adria Vasil’s run-away, national best-seller has been hailed as the most informed resource for practical tips and products that help you do your part for the earth. “Everything you need to know to make green, non-toxic, earth-friendly consumer choices – and to be a bang-up planetary citizen.” Based on the popular and authorative “Ecoholic” column that appears weekly in NOW, Ecoholic ,the book, is a cheeky and eye-opening guide to all of life’s greenest predicaments. “This book is for people who want to do something to lighten their impact on the planet” – David Suzuki
Katherine Ashenburg
We live in a deodorized world where germophobes shake hands with their elbows and where sales of hand sanitizers are skyrocketing. The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History, Katherine Ashenburg’s latest book, takes us on a historic and cultural journey that is by turns intriguing, humorous, startling – and not always for the squeamish. Filled with amusing quotations and stories from the great bathers of history, Ashenburg searches for clean and dirty in plague-ridden streets, medieval steam baths, castles and tenements, and in bathrooms of every description. She reveals the bizarre perscriptions of history’s doctors as well as the hygienic peccadilloes of kings, mistresses, monks and ordinary citizens, and guides us through the twists and turns to our own understanding of clean.
November 8, 2007
Stephanie Nolen
From the Africa correspondent for The Globe and Mail, comes an extraordinary book that puts a human face on the AIDS crisis in Africa: twenty-eight vivid stories, one for each of the million Africans living with the virus. Through riveting, anecdotal stories, she brings to life men, women, and children involved in every aspect of the pandemic. “ 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa is both brillant and engaging” – The Observer “This book is magnificent. It’s probably the best book ever written about AIDS, certainly the best I’ve ever read” – Stephen Lewis
Nelofer Pazira
Journalist, filmmaker and human rights activist Nelofer Pazira presents a moving and stunningly written memoir of her childhood curtailed by the arrival of Soviet rule in Afghanistan and her family’s sacrifices and eventual escape to Canada. Pazira’s book has been hailed internationally as one of the most eloquent and perceptive on the last thirty years in Afghanistan. The award-winning A Bed of Red Flowers, is “a remarkable journey. An inspiring and utterly engrossing read…a rare account of a misunderstood country and its intrepid people, trying to live ordinary lives under extraordinary circumstances.”
November 21, 2007
Yann Martel
When the much decorated Life of Pi was first published it was called masterful and an utterly original novel that is at once the story of a young castaway who faces immeasurable hardships on the high seas, and a meditation on religion, faith, art and life that is as witty as it is profound. Using the threads of all of our best stories, Yann Martel has woven a glorious spiritual adventure that makes us question what it means to be alive, and to believe. This new edition of Life of Pi has been beautifully illustrated by Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac. “a good story can make you see, understand and believe, and Martel is a very good storyteller.”
January 17, 2008
Janice Kulyk Keefer
From one of Canada’s most accomplished novelists comes The Ladies’ Lending Library, a bittersweet tale about mothers, daughters, friends and lovers in the 1960s cottage country. Janice Kulyk Keefer creates a radiant portrait of women caught between countries, cultures and aspirations. Richly evocative, beautifully told, the novel will resonate with more than women and book club members; it’s a story for anyone who has longed for the sweet and heady days of bygone summers and the risky promises of change.
“Pull up a Muskoka chair and enjoy a juicy summer read”
Cordelia Strube
In her seventh novel, acclaimed Canadian author and playwright Cordelia Strube grabs readers by the neuroses with a dark and wickedly funny story about Reese, a former Greenpeace crusader turned “for-profit” marketeer, who battles against a world-gone-mad in a desperate attempt to regain a life and a family that has drifted away from him. As chaos turns into calamity, Reese tries in vain to keep both feet on a planet that seems unfit for anyone with an inner activist or anyone struggling to shut that inner activist up. Engaging, enlightening, and always entertaining, Planet Reese is an intensely personal and endearing tale of a man holding onto his sanity against all odds in an increasingly unhinged world.
February 14, 2008
Frances Itani
Georgina Danforth Witley has never felt she has led anything but an ordinary life. But here she is on her way to meet the Queen. Born on the exact same day as Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Georgie has been invited to lunch at Buckingham Palace. But something happens on the way. From the award-winning author of Deafening comes Frances Itani’s new novel, Remembering the Bones. Itani has given readers an insightful, moving and beautifully written novel, fanciful and profound by turns. Remembering the Bones goes deeply into the life of an ordinary person who, in her instincts to survive, becomes extraordinary.
Tish Cohen
Jack Madigan is, by many accounts, blessed. He can still effortlessly turn a pretty head. And thanks to his legendary rock star father, he lives an enviable existence in a once-glorious, now-crumbling Boston town house with his teenage son. But there is one tiny drawback: Jack is an agoraphobe. As long as his dad’s admittedly dwindling royalties keep rolling in, Jack’s condition isn’t a problem. But then the money runs out…and all hell breaks loose. Tish Cohen’s first novel has been called “hysterically funny, compassionate and brilliantly observed. Town House is a winner.”
April 23, 2008
Richard B. Wright
October is the new novel that Richard B. Wright’s Clara Callan fans will love. October effortlessly weaves a haunting coming-of-age story set in World War II Quebec with a contemporary portrait of a man still searching for answers in the autumn of his life. A classic Richard B. Wright novel, defined by superb storytelling, subtle, spare writing and characters who travel psychological territory as familiar - and uncharted – as our own, October is an extraordinary meditation on mortality, childhood and memory.