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Straphanger$31.99 add to cart

This book has been getting a lot of buzz in the last week and it's a great topic for those of us in Winnipeg adjusting to the brave new world of Rapid Transit.

Taras Grescoe has written books that have changed the way we look at illicit substances, in The Devil's Picnic, and how we think about the world's seafood, in Bottomfeeder. Now, as oil prices soar and suburbs continue to sprawl, Grescoe hits the commuter road in a global quest to understand and illuminate the challenges of the post-automobile age.

Ultimately, Straphanger's subject is the city, and it offers a global tour of alternatives to car-based living, told through encounters with bicycle commuters, subway engineers, idealistic mayors and disillusioned trolley campaigners. Along the way, Grescoe meets libertarian apologists for the automobile, urbanists who defend suburban sprawl, champions of buses, rapid transit and light rail, and planners fighting to liberate cities from the empire of the automobile.

In a world of skyrocketing gas prices and political unrest in the oil-rich corners of the world, Straphanger is an essential book that addresses one of the most critical discussions of the near future.

The book has received a lot of press including reviews in the Winnipeg Free Press and the Globe and Mail.

 

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The Headmaster's Wager$32.95 add to cart

I'm very excited to tell you about Vincent Lam's new novel. You may recall that Lam surprised us all when he won the Giller Prize in 2006 for his collection of short stories, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. That was a very good collection of short stories but "The Giller?" we all thought, "Really?"

Well the talents of Vincent Lam as well as his win are now fully established in my mind after reading The Headmaster's Wager. This novel tells the story of Percival Chen, the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant, a compulsive gambler and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables. But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive. Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see.

The Globe and Mail has already reported that The Headmaster's Wager "has [the] makings of a masterpiece." I don't use that word very much but I can confirm that Lam's new novel is a powerful work and one of the best Canadian novels I've read in a while.

 

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A Thousand Farewells$32.00 add to cart

We're very excited to host, and welcome home, Nahlah Ayed tonight at 7:00 at our Winnipeg store. Nahlah Ayed will be reading from her new book A Thousand Farewells so I thought it fitting that we feature that book as our Book of the Day today. For more information on the event click here.

In A Thousand Farewells, Ayed describes with sympathy and insight the myriad ways in which the Arab people have fought against oppression and loss as seen from her own early days witnessing protests in Amman, and the wars, crackdowns, and uprisings she has reported on in countries across the region. A uniquely personal insight into the Middle East from one of Canada's most respected foreign correspondents.

The book was positively reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press this past weekend. Please join us if you can at the Winnipeg store tonight.

 

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The Beginner's Goodbye$29.95 add to cart

In The Beginner's Goodbye Anne Tyler gives us a wise and haunting new novel in which she explores how a middle-aged man, ripped apart by the death of his wife, is gradually restored by her frequent appearances -- in their house, on the roadway, in the market.

Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken, self-dependent young woman, she is like a breath of fresh air. Unhesitatingly he marries her, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy's unexpected appearances from the dead help him to live in the moment and to find some peace.

Gradually he discovers, as he works in the family's vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life, that maybe for this beginner there is a way of saying goodbye.

A beautiful, subtle exploration of loss and recovery, pierced throughout with Anne Tyler's humour, wisdom, and always penetrating look at human foibles.

Check out the very positive review from last weekend's Winnipeg Free Press.