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A Battle of the Books! - Manitoba Reads 2012

Wednesday, Jul 25, 2012 at 1:12pm

McNally Robinson Booksellers, in partnership with CBC Manitoba and the Winnipeg International Writers' Festival, are proud to present Manitoba Reads, a friendly competition that asks you, the reader, to help choose a book for all of us to read.

A long list of 12 Manitoba authored books has been established, which you can vote on from now until August 12. The four books that receive the most votes will then be debated by a panel of literary pros in front of a live audience on Friday, September 21 as part of the launch for Thin Air 2012. After the debate, voting will re-open for the remaining four books, with the winning title being announced on the Weekend Morning Show on Sunday, September 23

For more information and to cast your vote, please visit CBC's Manitoba Reads page.

Categories: buzz, Winnipeg

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Automatic World

- Struan Sinclair

Trade paperback $19.95
Reader Reward Price: $17.96

A stunning and fearless first novel from the Canadian author of the critically acclaimed Everything Breathed.

Four strands spanning several generations are woven together through the fragmented consciousness of a patient in rehabilitation from an accident that leaves him stuck in present tense. Unable to recall who he is, where he is from, or who he knows, and determined to access his history, the patient harvests and assembles the narratives of his friends, family, and other witnesses. Out of this miscellany emerge surprising stories: Merrick, an inventor who dreams of a clockwork universe; Dory, a girl who commits a mercy killing at a local hospice; Merle, whose repeated suicide attempts function to forge a relationship with his estranged son; and finally the narrator's own elusive past. Between these threads is the story of a train crash and of three minutes lost -- three minutes that will prove a turning point in the lives of all the characters caught in this complicated clockwork.


From the Hardcover edition.

Autumn, One Spring

- Patti Grayson

Trade paperback $19.00
Reader Reward Price: $17.10

Autumn Greene returns to her hometown after a six-year absence, uninvited to her sister Christine’s wedding, the daughter she conceived in a one-time encounter with her sister’s ex-fiancé in tow. Once burned, twice angry, Christine does all she can to make Autumn unwelcome, assuming another wedding disaster. A harbinger of truth, Autumn reveals all of Christine’s secrets and brings about a near-nuclear explosion of emotion and confusion among the family and wedding party. In the fallout of this strangest of romances, forgiveness emerges as the biggest challenge.Autumn, One Spring is a humour-infused drama that takes truthfulness in relationships seriously. Autumn constantly berates herself for making people unhappy when she opens her big mouth, but can’t stop herself from stating frankly all she sees, hears, and thinks.Grayson’s Autumn is a young woman who has transformed from a love poem-writing teenager with a crush on her high-school English teacher, Mr. Ashton, to a world-weary working single mom. Returning to her hometown brings her face to face with both Gabriel Ashton and the father of her child, forcing her to open doors to new life possibilities.Autumn’s well-developed character touches a chord in anyone who has ever experienced love’s cruel injustice, and the ever-spiralling plot keeps her readers glued to the page to see what the final outcome will be.

Joe from Winnipeg

- Ian Ross

Trade paperback $17.95
Reader Reward Price: $16.16

"Joe From Winnipeg" is a series of weekly commentaries penned and performed by Ian Ross on CBC Radio One. Phenomenally successful since they began to air, these humorous commentaries reflect a compassionate and curious Everyman.

In this, the third collection of "Joe From Winnipeg" stories, Ross picks over 80 of his favourites from the series. He delves into such pressing social issues as moose on the road, immunization, peekaboo, little dogs wearing nail polish, springrolls, and odometer checks.

The Knife Sharpener's Bell

- Rhea Tregebov

Trade paperback $21.00
Reader Reward Price: $18.90

Ten-year old Annette Gershon is content enough growing up in her father's delicatessen on Main Street Winnipeg, but for immigrant families scratching out a living in the Dirty Thirties, even subsistence is a delicate balance, easily upset. Everything changes when her parents decide to take the family "home" to the Soviet Union to escape the devastation of the collapsing capitalist economy. Annette struggles to maintain her sense of who she is, first adapting to her life in Stalinist Odessa, then fleeing to Moscow, ahead of the Nazi occupation. But it is in the post-war years that her identity, and her very life, are threatened by the anti-Semitism of Stalinism's final years. The Knife Sharpener's Bell is the story of a girl who tried to stop a train, but finds herself on the runaway train of historical events. It is a story about loyalty and betrayal, heroism and fear. What is most memorable is the empathy we feel for these characters who must make their way through some of the twentieth century's most tumultuous events. The writing is infused with a poet's sensitivities to rhythm, image, and linguistic energy, yet it is also beautifully restrained-each image and each gorgeous observation is there for a reason; the entire story hums with the tension that arises from the taut, athletic language.

The Man from Glengarry

- Ralph Connor , Alison Gordon

Trade paperback $19.95
Reader Reward Price: $17.96

Ranald Macdonald's roots are in the forest of Ontario's easternmost county and his character was forged in the small Presbyterian church near his home. When he leaves to test his idealism and faith in the rough world of the lumber business, he brings pride to the minister's wife who was the model for his life.

Met with international acclaim when published in 1901, The Man from Glengarry is a tale of courage and an exciting portrait of life in 19th-century Canada.

Stone Watermelon

- Lois Braun

Trade paperback $16.95
Reader Reward Price: $15.26

These unsentimental, passionate stories of modern rural life were nominated for the 1986 Governor General's Award. Retired farmers cruise and booze around the countryside; a farm wife contemplates an affair with the hired hand; a cropduster opens the No Place Bar and Grill."... a diamond hard realism and authenticity."--Books in Canada