March & April 2017

Like The White Bone, Barbara Gowdy’s international bestseller, Little Sister is a fictional tour de force. As the author explores the limits of the human mind, the result is an impassioned tale of one woman’s determination to help a woman she has never met, and to come to terms with a death for which she has always felt responsible.

Rose is a sensible woman, thirty-four years old. Together with her widowed mother, Fiona, she runs a small repertory cinema in a big city. Fiona is in the early stages of dementia and is beginning to make painful references to Rose’s sister, Ava, who died young in an accident.

It is high summer, and a band of storms, unusual for their frequency and heavy downpour, is rolling across the city. Something unusual is also happening to Rose. As the storms break overhead, she loses consciousness and has vivid, realistic dreams — not only about being someplace else, but also of living someone else’s life. Is Rose merely dreaming? Or is she, in fact, inside the body of another woman? Disturbed and entranced, she tries to find out what is happening to her. (Hardcover. $33.99. Patrick Crean Editions. April)

Gowdy is the author of seven books, including Helpless, The Romantic, The White Bone, Mister Sandman, We So Seldom Look on Love, and Falling Angels. She has been a finalist three times for the Governor General’s Award and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and twice for the Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 1996, she received the Marian Engel Award and in 2008 the Trillium Book Award.

 E  McNally Robinson Booksellers & the Winnipeg International Writers Festival will present Barbara Gowdy as part of the Winnipeg International Writers Festival Spring Reading Series at McNally Robinson Booksellers Wednesday May 17 at 7:00 pm.

It has been fifteen years since the last herb-themed edition of the Prairie Garden appeared and a whole new generation of gardeners is discovering the diverse joys of growing herbs. These days herb gardens are less often single spaces, but instead intermingle among flowers, vegetables, pots, raised beds and any other gardening concept imaginable. Edible plants are an easy entry point for budding gardeners: everyone can appreciate herbs and they are so well suited to gardens big or small. As one gains experience and grows into a green thumb, herbs continue to offer endless possibilities and rich engagement.

The Prairie Garden 2017: Herbs & Spices, with guest editor Dave Hanson, explores the extent to which the opportunities for growing your own herbs, from organics to year-round cultivation, has changed. It also recommends herbs and spices that once seemed unlikely candidates for the local prairie scene.  E   MB EVENT MAR 12

David Haskell’s The Songs of Trees documents the biological networks that surround all species, including humans. In repeated visits to a dozen trees around the world, he explores the trees’ connections with webs of fungi, bacterial communities, cooperative and destructive animals, and other plants. An Amazonian ceibo tree reveals the rich ecological turmoil of the tropical forest, while thousands of miles away, the roots of a balsam fir in Canada survive only with the help of fungal partners. These links are nearly two billion years old: the fir’s roots cling to rocks containing fossils of the first networked cells.

By unearthing charcoal left by Ice Age humans and petrified redwoods in the Rocky Mountains, Haskell shows how the Earth’s climate has emerged from exchanges among trees, soil communities, and the atmosphere. Every living being is not only sustained by biological connections, but is made from these relationships.

Who hasn’t felt the compulsive power of social media, video games, or checking your phone? People have always formed addictions, but these days we are hooked on technologies such as Twitter, Netflix, and Facebook, inventions and devices we use in the hope of making our lives better. Irresistible by Adam Adler investigates the insidious flipside of today’s unavoidable digital technologies, and how we can turn the tide to regain control.

The capacity to be alone is one of life’s subtlest skills. Real solitude is a contented and productive state that allows us to reflect and recharge, improving our relationships with ourselves and, paradoxically, with others. Solitude by award-winning author Michael Harris (The End of Absence) examines why our experience of solitude has become so impoverished, and how we may grow to love it again in the frenzy of our digital landscape.

In the summer of 1914, Agatha Kent is preparing to welcome the school’s new Latin teacher, Beatrice Nash, to the sleepy English village of Rye. Agatha’s nephews, both filled with their own dreams, are down for a visit. But when Hugh picks up Beatrice from the train station, life takes an interesting turn. Simonson's latest novel is full of the same wit and charm that made her bestselling Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand such a delight. (Anchor. February)

Christine Nilsson and her husband, Marcus, are desperate for a baby. Unable to conceive, they make the decision to use a donor. When Christine is happily pregnant, she is shocked to discover her donor has been arrested for a series of brutal murders. Riveting and fast-paced, Most Wanted poses an ethical and moral dilemma: What would you do if the biological father of your unborn child was a killer? (St. Marin's. March)

When Katherine of Aragon is brought to the Tudor court as a young bride, the oldest princess, Margaret, takes her measure. With one look, each knows the other for a rival, an ally, a pawn, destined — with Margaret’s younger sister Mary — to a unique sisterhood. The three sisters will become the queens of England, Scotland, and France. As they experience betrayals, dangers, loss, and passion, they find that their special bond is more powerful than any man, even a king. (Touchstone. February)

Productivity isn’t always about driving ourselves harder, working faster and pushing ourselves toward greater “efficiency.” Rather, real productivity relies on managing how we think, identify goals, construct teams and make decisions. The bestselling author of The Power of Habit explores the science of productivity, and why managing how you think — rather than what you think about — can transform your ability to do what needs to be done. (Anchor. March)

Famed for her novels, Charlotte Brontë has been known as well for her insular, tragic family life. Drawing on letters unavailable to previous biographers, Harman reveals a life in which loss and heartache existed alongside rebellion and fierce ambition. She seizes on a crucial moment in the 1840s when Charlotte worked at a girls’ school in Brussels and fell hopelessly in love with the husband of the school’s headmistress. Her torment spawned an obsessive, unrequited love, transforming her from the tragic figure we have previously known into a smouldering Jane Eyre. (Vintage. March)

The French Riviera, 1956. Bernie Gunther, Kerr's sardonic former Berlin homicide detective, is the go-to guy at the Grand Hotel Cap Ferrat. When he arranges for W. Somerset Maugham to fill the fourth seat in a regular game of Bridge, Bernie finds himself embroiled in a world of blackmail and espionage with potentially global consequences. Even in 1956, peace has not come to the continent. The Soviets have the H bomb and spies from every major power have made all of Europe their playground. (Putnam. March)

From a painfully shy childhood in which she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her big body and even bigger opinions; to her public war with stand-up comedians over rape jokes; to her struggle to convince herself, and then the world, that fat people have value; to her accidental activism and never-ending battle royale with Internet trolls, Lindy narrates her life with a blend of humour and pathos. (Hachette. March)

Based on her recollections, her daily journals, and the harrowing writings and videos her son Dylan left behind, Sue Klebold recounts the days and months leading up to the tragic shooting at Columbine High School, where twelve students and one teacher, as well as the shooters themselves, died. She also explores how she and others close to him missed the signs that Dylan was in trouble, and asks the larger question: how can we help our children and prevent such senseless tragedies in the future? (Broadway. February)

Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In fact, according to new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. Although small, bird brains are packed with neurons that allow them to punch well above their weight. Ackerman not only tells the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds but also delves into the latest findings about the bird brain itself that are revolutionizing our view of what it means to be intelligent. (Penguin. April)

Huffington presents a sweeping, scientifically rigorous, and deeply personal exploration of sleep from all angles, from the history of sleep to the new golden age of sleep science that is revealing the vital role sleep plays in our every waking moment and every aspect of our health, from weight gain, diabetes, heart disease to cancer and Alzheimer's. (Harmony. April)

Meredith thought she’d done it all right: married the perfect man, had the perfect daughter. But as she grows increasingly restless, she can’t help but wonder if she got the love part wrong. Josie has been happily single for years, but she wants a child so much she’s one bad Match.com date away from heading straight for the baby carriage on her own. These sisters, whose relationship was strained by the death of their older brother over a decade ago, now find that they need each other more than they realized. (Anchor. April)

Originally published before the 2016 American election, Listen, Liberal describes what ailed the Democratic Party even before their weaknesses became obvious. It is the story of how the "Party of the People" detached itself from its historic constituency among average Americans and chose instead to line up with the winners of the new economic order. Now with a new afterword, Frank's analysis offers a powerful diagnosis of the liberal malady and is essential reading for anyone who still values liberal ideals. (Picador. March)

Three generations of polar bears are famous as both circus performers and writers in East Germany: they are bears who move as humans, doing human things and thinking human thoughts. The grandmother, in the Soviet Union, accidentally writes a bestselling autobiography; Tosca, her daughter (born in Canada, where her mother had emigrated) takes a job in the circus. Her son, Knut, is born in a Leipzig zoo but raised by a human keeper. Happy or sad, each bear writes a story in this delightfully strange novel. (New Directions. November)

In 1979 Iran became the first revolutionary theocracy in modern times. Since then, the country has been largely a black box to the West, a sinister presence on the world stage, a collage of stereotypes and overgeneralizations. But inside Iran, a drama has unfolded as religious and political thinkers, poets, journalists, and activists have re-imagined what Iran should be. They have drawn as deeply on Western traditions as Eastern and have acted upon their beliefs, frequently staking their lives on them. Journalist Laura Secor reframes this history as a story of individuals caught up in their time and striving for change. (Penguin. February)

Nominated for the Booker Prize in 2015, this superb novel is finally being released in paperback. It’s the story of three young men from different backgrounds in India, who come together when circumstances force them to become illegal labourers in England. Caught in the clashes of culture and economic privilege, each attempts to decide his own course in life and finds out to what extent the world allows that. (Vintage. February)

At the Existentialist Café is a very readable look at the group of post-war thinkers who became known as the Existentialists: Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, Heidegger, and their circle. Starting with Paris after the devastation of the Second World War, Bakewell takes us inside the passionate debates and equally passionate lives of these brilliant, if flawed, characters. This is a lively look at the social, artistic and political currents that shaped the existentialist movement, a mode of thinking and being that deeply affects us today. (Vintage. March)

From the Balkans to Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, and most recently Syria, civil conflict has exploded across the globe. In the West, politics itself looks like civil war by other means. But defining when a war is “civil” depends on whether one is ruler or rebel, victor or vanquished, participant or foreigner. Armitage touches on developments in Western thought to create a "genealogy" of our contradictory notions about civil war. The result reveals much about how this intellectual inheritance has shaped the political fortunes of our uneasy world. (Allen Lane. February)

Mishra, a public intellectual with a global perspective, seeks to reveal the hidden history of our current global crisis. By casting his gaze back to the 18th century before leading us to the present, he shows that as the world became modern, those who were unable to enjoy its promises were increasingly susceptible to demagogues. The many who came late to this new world reacted with similar hatred of invented enemies, dreams of an imaginary golden age, and self-empowerment through violence. Today, the pursuit of wealth and individualism have cast many more billions adrift in a demoralized world, with the same terrible results. (FSG. February)

Scientist Hope Jahren has studied trees, flowers and seeds. Her book is partly a treatise on plant life but it is also her story about work and love, and the things you can do when those two come together. It is told through Jahren's personal stories: about her love of her lab and about her childhood play in her father's lab; and about how she learned to perform lab work "with both the heart and the hands". (Vintage. March)

Jane, orphaned at birth, has worked as a maid at an English estate since she was sixteen. And for almost all of those years, she has been the secret lover of Paul, the scion of the estate next door. On a March afternoon in 1924, when all the servants have been let off work for “Mothering Sunday,” Jane and Paul will make love for the last time. The narrative moves back and forth from this very personal moment and this single room to the end of the century and the wider world. (Vintage. January)

Russo returns to North Bath, the Rust Belt town he first brought to life in Nobody's Fool. Now, ten years later, Doug Raymer has become the chief of police and is tormented by the death of his wife. The irrepressible Sully has come into a small fortune, but learns he only has a year or two left to live. We are reunited with his son and grandson, with Ruth, the married woman with whom he carried on for years, and with the hapless Rub Squeers, who worries that he and Sully aren't still best friends. Filled with humour heart, and hard-luck characters who will charm you. (Vintage. January)

Canada’s most famous adman, Terry O'Reilly, spills a career’s worth of marketing secrets so anyone can compete with the best in their business — whatever that business might be.

From understanding what business you’re really in and foregoing the extra mile in favour of the extra inch, to the benefits of counterintuitive thinking and knowing an opportunity when you see one, This I Know helps anyone understand the fundamentals of good marketing strategy and building the relationships that turn good marketing into great results, no matter how big or small your budget. (Knopf. March)

Most of us don’t like to stretch outside our comfort zone. But embracing discomfort is an important tool for success.

It’s a secret known by everyone from ballroom dancers to stand-up comics to the Marines. Discomfort is not the same as fear or anxiety, and, more important, knowing how to take advantage of discomfort is not an innate ability, but it’s something that we all can learn. The Beauty of Discomfort by Amanda Lang provides examples and strategies from all over the world to help you become more creative, more innovative and more effective in your work and life. (HarperCollins)

The weekend — the once-sacred 48 hours of leisure — has been lost to overbooked schedules, pinging devices and encroaching work demands. Many of us are working more hours than we did a decade ago, and worse, we allow those hours to slide over seven days a week, giving us no respite to tune out and recharge. In a search for the lost weekend and how we can get it back, The Weekend Effect by Katrina Onstad digs into the history of the great missing weekend. She pushes back against the all-work-no-fun ethos and follows the trials of people, companies and countries who are vigilantly protecting their weekends for joy, for adventure and, most importantly, for meaning. (HarperCollins. April)

Creativity. It is the secret of what makes humans special. In The Creative Spark, Agustín Fuentes argues that your child’s finger painting comes from the same place as creativity in hunting and gathering millions of years ago and throughout history in making war and peace, in intimate relationships, in shaping the planet, in our communities, and in all of art, religion, and science. It requires imagination and collaboration. Every poet has her muse, every engineer, an architect, every politician, a constituency. The manner of the collaborations varies widely, but successful collaboration is inseparable from imagination, and it has brought us everything from knives and hot meals to iPhones and interstellar spacecraft. (Dutton. March)

Ingenious by His Excellency David Johnston and Tom Jenkins is a richly illustrated volume of brilliant Canadian innovations whose widespread adoption has made the world a better place. From Bovril to Blackberrys, lightbulbs to liquid helium, peanut butter to Pablum, Ingenious explores what goes on in the mind of an innovator, and maps the spectrum of personalities who have struggled to improve the lot of their neighbours and their fellow citizens. From the marvels of aboriginal invention such as the canoe, snowshoe, and igloo to the latest pioneering advances in medicine, education, science, engineering, business, the arts, and the media, Canadians have improvised and collaborated their way to international admiration. (Signal. April)

Wait, What?, the commencement address to the graduating class of 2016, by James E. Ryan, dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, offers advice to hopeful men and women eager to make their mark on the world. Ryan argues that the key to achieving emotional connections and social progress can be found in five essential questions:
1.) "Wait, what?" is at the root of all understanding.
2.) "I wonder" is at the heart of all curiosity.
3.) "Couldn’t we at least?" is the beginning of all progress.
4.)"How can I help?" is the basis of all good relationships.
5.) And "what truly matters?" gets you to the heart of life.

This insightful guide reveals the art of asking (and answering) good questions. (HarperCollins. April)

Make Trouble, John Waters' subversive advice to the graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, is not just a commencement speech, it is a manifesto that reminds us, no matter what career we choose, we all need to embrace chaos, be nosy, and outrage the outdated critics.

Waters notes with irony that he is eminently qualified to be a commencement speaker because he was suspended from high school, then kicked out of college, yet he is a success doing what he loves best. Anyone embarking on a creative path, he tells us, would do well to realize that pragmatism and discipline are as important as talent, and that rejection is nothing to fear. Waters advises young people to eavesdrop, listen to their enemies, and horrify us with new ideas. In other words, make trouble. (Algonquin. April)

Bridging together the two worlds of soccer and great writing, Home and Away by Karl Ove Knausgaard, the author of the My Struggle cycle of novels, and novelist, playwright and translator, Fredrik Ekelund, provide us with a die-hard fan’s impassioned, personal, quirky, and entertaining musings on that fundamental relationship between sports and life.

While Karl Ove was sitting at home in Sweden watching the World Cup on TV (and falling asleep), with his wife, four small children and the dog, his good pal Fredrik was away in Brazil, playing football on the beach and watching the match. In the lively, argumentative, unique long-form email correspondence between them that followed, written back and forth across the world, what began as musings on the famous 2014 World Cup became (naturally) an exploration of the essential questions of life.

With verve and humour, the authors exchange ideas encompassing everything from the elusive nature of personal happiness, competitiveness, politics, insider knowledge about international football, art and literature. (Knopf. March)

The story of the bloody 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge is, according to many of today’s tellings, a heroic founding moment for Canada. This noble, birth-of-a-nation narrative is regularly applied to the Great War in general. Yet this mythical tale is rather new. “Vimyism” — today’s official story of glorious, martial patriotism — contrasts sharply with the complex ways in which veterans, artists, clerics, and even politicians who had supported the war interpreted its meaning over the decades.

Was the Great War a futile imperial debacle? A proud, nation-building milestone? Contending Great War memories have helped to shape how later wars were imagined. The Vimy Trap by Ian McKay & Jamie Swift provides a powerful probe of commemoration cultures. This fast-paced work of public history — combining scholarly insight with sharp-eyed journalism, and based on primary sources and school textbooks, battlefield visits and war art — explains both how and why peace and war remain contested terrain in ever-changing landscapes of Canadian memory. (Between the Lines. October 2016)

The Analyst by Molly Peacock tells the story of the decades-long relationship she's had with her psychoanalyst, who returned to painting after surviving a stroke. By translating techniques of visual art into language, The Analyst guides us through galleries of breathtaking settings and portraiture, leading us on a search for authenticity behind the illusions of pose. (Biblioasis. February)

A provocative foray into experimental poetry. It explores the fertile gaps and overlaps between the architecture of poetry and the poetry of architecture. It is a work of serious play, which springs from enjoyment found on the porous boundaries of sense and non-sense. (Signature Editions. April)  E   MB EVENT APR 28

The knife-sharp new collection of stories and songs from award-winning Nishnaabeg storyteller and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of Islands of Decolonial Love. Provocateur and poet, Betasamosake Simpson continually rebirths a decolonized reality, one that circles in and out of time and resists dominant narratives or comfortable categorization. (Anansi. April)

After Roo Borson’s two previous collections — Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida and Rain; road; an open boat — set the seasons in motion, Cardinal in the Eastern White Cedar arrives to complete the triptych. From the classically rendered image to a lucid, narrative line, Borson meditates on fidelity to inquiry, attachment, and to what can’t be fully known. (McClelland & Stewart. April)

A searing denunciation of the exploitation of the poor and powerless at the hands of the wealthy. In forceful, unadorned language, Hildebrandt draws a clear line from historical outrages such as the Dakota Wars of the 19th century and the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike to injustices in present-day England, Cuba, and Canada. (NeWest Press)  E   SK EVENT MAR 8

In Charles Noble's Mack the Naïf, the said Naïf is all over the place, spinning an incidental mosaic, where mini-narratives or "short hairs" are dropped and picked up to ghost a trans-narrative over a gallimaufry of pop-up poems in a style that teases and tilts at this historical material world. (Ekstasis Editions)  E   SK EVENT MAR 8

A poetic account of finding home, and the meanings and moments that the concept of home can come to embody. The collection tracks the poet through a landscape of intimate places — an ancestral home in Scotland, a mother's birthplace in Salzburg, a childhood home on the West Coast — as well as the memory-warped terrain of the poet's past houses. (Nightwood. May)  E   MB EVENT MAR 25 & SK EVENT MAR 30

Dennis Lee has been publishing poems for fifty years, working across the spectrum from nursery rhymes to works of uncompromising moral introspection. Heart Residence collects for the first time work from all corners of this extraordinary career, from Lee’s searing  early breakthroughs to his beloved children's verse to his visions of environmental apocalypse. (Anansi. April)

December 31, 1918. The war to end all wars was over, and the HMS Iolaire was ferrying nearly 300 soldiers to their homes when it foundered off the coast of Scotland within a mile from the safety of Stornoway Harbour. 205 died, only 82 survived. Iolaire, Karen Clavelle's debut collection of poetry, takes letters, news clippings and her own unique voice to stitch together one of the most tragic tales in maritime history. (Turnstone. April)

To make his dying ex-cop father happy, Elias Trifannis joins the military and is deployed to Afghanistan. By the time he realizes his last-minute bid for connection was a terrible mistake, it’s too late and a tragedy has occurred. The Nightingale Won't Let You Sleep by internationally acclaimed author Steven Heighton is a passionate novel of buried secrets, the repercussions of war, and finding love among the ruins. (Hamish Hamilton. March)

A popular high school teacher, Lucas Haas disappears the same day the body of one of his students is pulled from the river. Trying to wrap her head around the rumours of Lucas’s affair with the teen, his twin sister Mia returns to her hometown looking for answers. Follow Me Down by Winnipeg author Sherri Smith is a visceral psychological thriller in which Mia uncovers secrets that could exonerate her brother, or seal his fate. (Forge. March)  E   MB EVENT APR 10

After separating from her faithless husband, the unnamed narrator gets word that her ex has gone missing in a remote region in the Peloponnese. Although she agrees to go and search for him, in her heart, she’s not sure if she wants to find him. A Separation by Katie Kitamura is about the gulf that divides us from the lives of others and the narratives we create to mask our true emotions. (Riverhead. February)

Karen Connelly is the author of ten books of non-fiction, fiction and poetry. In her latest novel, The Change Room, Eliza Keenan is a mother, business owner, and loving wife. Her one complaint is that she doesn't have enough for herself. Then one morning into this already full life comes a tall, dark young woman, and Eliza's world is suddenly turned upside-down. (Knopf. April)

For Maureen Brennan school is torture. She wants a bigger life, and sets her sights on going to Montreal and being a part of Expo 67, even if it means faking her way into the school choir. Crying for the Moon, the poignantly funny debut novel of actress, comedian and social activist Mary Walsh, is the unforgettable story of a young woman coming of age late 1960s St. John’s, Newfoundland. (HarperCollins. April)  E   MB EVENT APR 30

When Catherine Reindeer vanishes without a trace, the lives of her friends and family are overturned. But at the heart of Rebecca Rosenblum’s first novel, So Much Love, is Catherine’s own story of resilience and recovery, longing and loss, and how the stories we tell have the power to shape our lives. (McClelland & Stewart. March)

Set in an atypical dystopian world, Nuala by Kimmy Beach is highly original and inventive, echoing the work of Margaret Atwood, José Saramago, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Set in a time and space that are at once remote and strange, Nuala leaves the reader with much to consider about the nature of love, jealousy, envy, and autonomy. (University of Alberta Press. March)  E   SK EVENT MAR 28

Derek Ouellette’s glory days are behind him. His hockey career ended in a moment of violence a decade earlier, and since then he’s been living in the remote northern community where he grew up, drinking too much and fighting anyone who crosses him. When his long-lost sister Beth shows up, on the run from an abusive boyfriend, the two escape to a secluded hunting camp in the woods where they reconnect with each other, explore their Cree heritage, and confront their painful past. But, determined to get her back, Beth’s ex-boyfriend is closing in on them. Roughneck, the new graphic novel by bestselling author Jeff Lemire (and the illustrator of Gord Downie's The Secret Path), is a deeply moving story about family, heritage, and breaking the cycle of violence. (Gallery. April)

Elaine M. Will's four-part adaptation of Andreas Schroeder's 1986 novel Dustship Glory tells the story of Damanus ‘Tom’ Sukanen, a Finnish immigrant farmer who responded to the economic slump and drought conditions that laid waste to the Canadian prairies in the 1930s by building a full-sized ship in his farmyard, hundreds of miles from the sea. The first part of this four-part graphic novel, Dust-Ship Glory, is now available. Will is the Xeric Award-winning Canadian author and cartoonist behind the critically acclaimed mental health drama graphic novel, Look Straight Ahead.  E   SK EVENT APR 11

Dave Atwell was a regular Canadian kid who rose to the heights of society, rubbing elbows with billionaires as a personal security specialist before getting involved with some of the country’s most notorious gangsters, including the Hells Angels for whom he was the sergeant at arms for the gang's notorious downtown Toronto chapter, a position he held when he opted to cooperate with law enforcement. The Hard Way Out retraces Atwell's days living a dual life as biker and informant among the bikers who called him a brother. Written by bestselling author Jerry Langton, this is a high-octane true story that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. (HarperCollins. April)

Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy by Nicholas Reynolds, a longtime American intelligence agent, brings to light a hidden side to the life of Ernest Hemingway: his recruitment by Soviet spies to work with the NKVD, the forerunner to the KGB, followed in short order by a complex set of secret relationships with American agencies, including the FBI and the CIA. Reynolds also reveals how Hemingway's secret adventures influenced his literary output and contributed to the writer's block and mental decline that plagued him during the postwar years. An international cloak-and-dagger tale ranging from the Spanish Civil War to the Cuban Revolution. (William Morrow. March)

Based upon a lecture series inaugurating the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights that took place in Winnipeg between September 2013 and May 2014, Fragile Freedoms, edited by three prominent University of Manitoba professors, Steven Lecce, Neil McArthur, and Arthur Schafer, brings together some of the world's leading academics and public intellectuals to explore the history, foundations, and implications of human rights in a range of different contexts. Written in a clear and accessible style for academic and general audiences, Fragile Freedoms relates to a number of current events and debates, including civil liberties, religious liberty, refugee crises, and poverty. (Oxford University Press. April)  E   MB EVENT APR 20

How did a social movement evolve from a small group of young radicals to the incorporation of LGBTQ communities into full citizenship on the model of Canadian multiculturalism?

In Queer Progress, Tim McCaskell contextualizes his work in gay, queer, and AIDS activism in Toronto from 1974 to 2014 within the shift from the Keynesian welfare state of the 1970s to the neoliberal economy of the new millennium. A shift that saw sexuality — once tightly regulated by conservative institutions — become an economic driver of late capitalism, and sexual minorities celebrated as a niche market. But even as it promoted legal equality, this shift increased disparity and social inequality. Today, the glue of sexual identity strains to hold together a community ever more fractured along lines of class, race, ethnicity, and gender; the celebration of LGBTQ inclusion pinkwashes injustice at home and abroad.

Queer Progress tries to make sense of this transformation by narrating the complexities and contradictions of forty years of queer politics in Canada’s largest city. (Softcover. $39.95. Between the Lines. September)

 E   SK EVENT MARCH 15 & MB EVENT MARCH 16

A debut collection of essays about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants in Canada, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul shares her observations, fears and experiences as a woman of colour growing up in Canada. These are stories ranging from shaving her knuckles in grade school, to a shopping trip gone horribly awry, to internet garbage, to parsing the trajectory of fears and anxieties that pressed upon her immigrated parents and bled down a generation. With a sharp eye and biting wit, Koul addresses sexism, cultural stereotypes and explores the absurdity of a life and culture steeped in misery. (Doubleday. March)

In the midst of a camping trip in Squamish, British Columbia, Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller decided that the summer of 2013 might be the right time for an adventure: a road trip across the entire country, with the purpose of writing about Canada’s food, culture, and the people they would meet.

The result is Feast: Recipes and Stories from a Canadian Road Trip, in which the authors write about their experiences of trying whale blubber in Nunavut, tying a GoPro to a fishing line in Newfoundland to get a shot of the Atlantic Ocean’s “cod highway,” and much more. With over 80 contributors — including farmers, grandmothers, First Nations elders, and acclaimed chefs — sharing their stories and favourite regional recipes, Feast is a full-spectrum representation of the diversity and complexity of Canada through its many favourite foods. (Appetite. March)

Fragrant with the smells of cumin, turmeric, fennel, and cloves, Vij: A Chef's One-Way Ticket to Canada with Indian Spices in His Suitcase reveals the story of Vikram Vij, one of Canada’s most celebrated chefs and entrepreneurs. He is the co-owner of the world-famous Vij’s Restaurant in Vancouver. His story is a true rags-to-riches tale of a college dropout from northern India who made it to Europe’s temples of high cuisine, then found fame in Canada, serving some of the world’s most transcendent Indian cuisine.

Vij reveals his struggles with prejudice, his mentors’ lasting lessons, and the painful demise of his marriage to business partner, Meeru Dhalwala. Along the way, he talks about both the successes and the failures that have shaped and sharpened one of Canada’s most unique and revered culinary talents. (Penguin. March)

The follow-up to 1989, Adams’ song-for-song remake of Taylor Swift’s album of the same name, marks the alternative country star's first full-length album of original material since 2014’s self-titled Ryan Adams. "I was reflecting on the different states of desire and what it means to be a prisoner of your own desire," Adams says of the new record's title, while the sound on the album's twelve tracks is inspired by ’80s rock by the likes of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, and ELO.

The music for Max Richter's new album is crafted from 2015s outstanding ballet production Woolf Works, a critically-acclaimed ballet triptych by choreographer Wayne McGregor, inspired by the life and works of English novelist Virginia Woolf. Featuring powerful, compelling, emotional music, encompassing electronic textures and soundscapes, as well as orchestral episodes, each of the three acts springs from one of Woolfs landmark novels enmeshed with elements from her letters, essays and diaries.

Since their formation in Toronto in 1994, the Polaris Music Prize shortlisters and JUNO winners have developed a style of music that is uniquely their own. Possessing a deep fondness and reverence for the best of country, bluegrass and blues, they are equally informed and influenced by everything from 60s garage and psychedelic rock to surf instrumentals and punk rock. The first single from the LP, “Riverview Fog” is a haunting, harmony-filled number which sets the tone for the eleven tracks on this, their tenth studio album.

After critically-lauded projects with trumpeter Paolo Fresu and with fellow guitarists Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan, Towner returns to solo guitar work with his twenty-ninth album for EMC. Whether on classical guitar or 12-string, Towner captures the nuance and the magic that a nylon string classical guitar can emote in the right hands. The new album features finely-honed new compositions, including a dedication to the late Paul Bley ("Blue As In Bley"), and "My Foolish Heart," which Towner first came to love in Bill Evans's interpretation.

If you happen to have a dinosaur, lying around your living room, and you don’t know what to do with it…. Well, let's put it this way, I bet you didn't know a dinosaur makes a fine umbrella, an excellent kite, and a dandy pillow, not to mention a reliable burglar alarm and the perfect excuse to forget your homework. If You Happen to Have a Dinosaur by Linda Bailey and illustrated by Colin Jack is guaranteed to tickle funny bones and spark imaginations. (Tundra. March)

Nancy knows she’s forgotten something but when she tries to remember, she thinks of all kinds of other things instead. Sometimes she remembers with her ears or her stomach or her heart. It’s only when Nancy stops thinking altogether that she finally remembers the very important thing she's forgotten. With miniature paper sculptures featuring outlines of a puzzled pachyderm on each spread, Nancy Knows by Cybele Young is a book not to be forgotten. (Tundra. March)

A Northern Alphabet by Ted Harrison is an early introduction to the letters by way of all things northern: the landscape, the people, and the flora and fauna. From A for anorak and B for bear to Q for quilt and Z for zinc mine, in these pages, children everywhere experience the colour and beauty of northern life. Each letter is accompanied by simple text naming a few of the objects, animals and people depicted. Ted Harrison’s bold, graphic art brings the alphabet and the arctic to life in this ABC classic. (Tundra. February)

Balloons love the moon, and a tuba loves a tune, but these don't compare to the love we have for you. In More Than Balloons award-winning poet Lorna Crozier uses evocative rhyme, complemented by Rachelle Anne Miller's whimsical imagery, to provide babies and toddlers with common concepts that explain just how great love is. (Orca. April)

Introduce young children to the names of animals with these bright and lively trilingual — English, French, Spanish — board books. Don’t Move! by Anne-Sophie Tilly, with illustrations by Julien Chung, and it’s companion book Hurry Up! are ideal board books for very young children. With only one word per page, simple, bold illustrations, and a surprise ending in both, these books can be used to expose toddlers to the names of animals. Those featured include common ones like lion or monkey, but there are also ones that may be new to children, like iguana or pink flamingo. In Don’t Move!, the animals come together on the last page to have their photo taken. Similarly, in Hurry Up!, the animals gather one by one until they’re all assembled to listen to a story. The name of each animal is presented in English, French, and Spanish, so whether parents/caregivers are native speakers or want to expose their children early to a foreign language, these two board books are just the thing. (Annick. March)

A is for Alice is a delightful introduction to the alphabet, using characters and objects from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, from A is for Alice, E is for Egg (Humpty Dumpty of course), Q is for the Queen, and not forgetting R for the Rabbit who started off the whole adventure.

The companion book, One White Rabbit, is an equally delightful introduction to numbers and counting taken from the pages of Carroll's work, from One White Rabbit for Alice to follow to Five grins from the Cheshire Cat, and Nine tarts made by the Queen.

Both books feature traditional colour illustrations by Sir John Tenniel, supplemented by additional art done in a Victorian-style decorative motif. (Macmillan. March)

Bestselling author Emma Donoghue's first book for young readers, The Lotterys Plus One, with illustrations by Caroline Hadilaksono, follows the domestic adventures of a large, rumbustious, multicultural family. The Lotterys, as they call themselves, are headed up by a lesbian couple and a gay couple who join forces to create a family, win a lottery jackpot and move into a Victorian Gothic mansion in Toronto, where they home-school their enormous brood.

It all seems perfectly normal to nine-year-old Sumac, until their hitherto obscure grandfather Grumps comes to stay, upending the Lotterys' already chaotic family life. (HarperCollins. April) (Ages 8-12)

 E  WINNIPEG EVENT APRIL 8: Emma Donoghue will be in conversation with Charlene Diehl and signing The Lotterys Plus One. This event is co-presented d by the Winnipeg International Writers Festival as part of our collaborative Spring Literary Series, and is open to readers of all ages.

Bill Nye the Science Guy and Gregory Mone take middlegrade readers on a scientific adventure in the launch of an exciting new chapter book series, Jack and the Geniuses. The series features real-world science along with action and a mystery that will leave kids guessing until the end.

In the series opener, Jack and the Geniuses: At The Bottom of The World, Jack, Ava, and Matt travel to Antarctica where they find themselves in a desperate search to find a missing scientist before it's too late. (Amulet. April) (Ages 8-12)

People call Daisy Dreamer the girl with her head in the clouds. Daisy and her friends Lily and Jasmine love to write stories, draw, and invent games. In Daisy Dreamer and the Totally True Imaginary Friend, the first book of the Daisy Dreamer series by Holly Anna and illustrated by Genevieve Santos, Daisy draws a doodle in her special journal. And guess what? The picture moves!

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Daisy Dreamer chapter books are perfect for emerging readers. (Simon & Schuster. April) (Ages 4-8)

When the world is thrust into darkness due to a global energy shortage, the CatStronauts are sent on a mission to set up a solar power plant on the moon. Meet the fearless commander Major Meowser, brave-but-hungry pilot Waffles, genius technician Blanket, and quick thinking science officer Pom Pom!

CatStronauts: Mission Moon, the debut graphic novel by Drew Brockington, breathes life into a world populated entirely by cats, brimming with jokes, charm, science, and enough tuna sandwiches for everyone! (Little, Brown. April) (Ages 7-10)

Over 5 million people have fallen in love with R.J. Palacio's Wonder and have joined the movement to Choose Kind. Now younger readers can meet Auggie Pullman, an ordinary boy with an extraordinary face, and his beloved dog, Daisy, in her new book, We're All Wonders.

With a spare, powerful text and striking, richly imagined illustrations, Palacio's picture-book debut as both author and artist reveals what it’s like to live in Auggie’s world, a world in which he feels like any other kid, but he’s not always seen that way. We’re All Wonders may be Auggie’s story, but it taps into every child’s longing to belong, and to be seen for who they truly are. (Hardcover. $24.99. Knopf. April) (Ages 4-8)

In Thunder Underground, noted children’s poet Jane Yolen takes readers on an expedition underground, exploring everything from animal burrows and human creations, like subways and ancient cities, to caves, magma, and Earth’s tectonic plates. At the same time, Josée Masse’s rich art follows a girl and boy, accompanied by several animals, on a fantastic underground journey.

Containing science, poetry, and an adventure story all rolled into one, Thunder Underground is a thought-provoking collection that evokes a sense of wonder and awe as we discover the mysterious world underneath our feet. (Wordsong. April) (Ages 5-10)

Thirteen classic poems are paired with parodies written by J. Patrick Lewis that honour and play off the original poems in a range of ways. For example, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is paired with "Stopping by Fridge on a Hungry Evening” to hilarious effect, whereas the combination of Emily Dickinson’s "'Hope’ is the thing with feathers” with Lewis’s "'Grief’ is the thing with tissues” is profound.

With illustrations by Johanna Wright, Keep a Pocket in Your Poem is a playful introduction to classics that inspires imagination and wonder even as it tickles funny bones. (Wordsong. April) (Ages 5-10)

Explore the place we call home in The Earth Book by Jonathan Litton and illustrated by Thomas Hegbrook. Marvel at the physical planet, learn how the weather works, meet some of the most influential people from the past and present, and much more. Examine every corner of the Earth, from outer space to underground and from the Maasai steppe to Manhattan. (Tiger Tales. March) (Ages 8-11)

Animals are amazing! Many of them migrate, often enduring harsh environments. Animal Journeys by Patricia Hegarty and illustrated by Jessica Courtney-Tickle teaches the curious about which animal has the longest migration; how one island assists with its crab migration; and much more in this beautifully illustrated journal of journeys. (Tiger Tales. March) (Ages 7-10)

The world around us is always growing and changing! Step into Things That Grow by Libby Walden and illustrated by Becca Stadtlander. This beautifully illustrated book where time has slowed down, lets you discover how a seed transforms into a mighty tree; how mountains and islands are formed; and what a puggle becomes when it grows up. (Tiger Tales. March) (Ages 7-10)

Saskatoon's Alice Kuipers is the bestselling author of four novels — Life on the Refrigerator Door, The Worst Thing She Ever Did, 40 Things I Want to Tell You, and The Death of Us — and two picture books. Her work has been published in twenty-nine countries. Her fifth novel, Me (and) Me, which releases in April, is about finding out who you really are.

Lark's seventeenth birthday is off to a great start. She has written a killer song for her band, the weather is stunning and she's got a date with Alec. The two take a canoe out on the lake, and everything is perfect — until Lark hears the screams. Annabelle, a little girl she used to babysit, is drowning in the nearby reeds while Annabelle's mom tries desperately to reach her. Lark and Alec are closer, and they both dive in. But Alec hits his head on a rock, and within seconds both Alec and Annabelle are drowning. Lark, however, can save only one of them. Lark chooses, and in that moment her world splits into two distinct lives. She must live with the consequences of both choices. As Lark finds herself going down more than one path, she has to decide: Which life is the right one? (HarperCollins. April)  E   SK EVENT APR 10

IN SASKATOON: Our Saskatoon “Be First” reading group for teens will be reading Me (and) Me. For those not familiar, participants receive a preview copy of the book and get to read it before it even hits the shelves, then join us to discuss. The pre-publication copies are limited. Please sign up asap. For more information, visit the Kids desk or call 955-1477.

The preview copies will be available Thursday, March 9. Alice Kuipers will distribute them that evening at 7:00 pm. Alice's "Be First" Book Club members will meet a week later Thursday, March 16 at 7:00 pm for a chance to discuss the book with the author herself.

See below for details about our upcoming "Be First" book picks for Winnipeg!

The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas’s debut about an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances, addresses issues of racism and police violence with intelligence, heart, and unflinching honesty.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she lives and the suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend at the hands of a police officer. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? The only person who can answer that question is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. (HarperCollins. March)

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful. But Molly's not totally dying of loneliness. Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. There's only one problem: Molly's coworker, Reid. He's a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli, the award-winning author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, is a funny, authentic novel about sisterhood, love, and identity. (HarperCollins. April)

In Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han, Lara Jean is finally in her senior year of high school, and after a lot of ups and downs, things are going well. She's in a good place with her boyfriend, her dad is getting remarried to their neighbour, and her sister is coming home for the summer, just in time for the wedding. Lara Jean is having a great year. But with college looming, she needs to figure out what will happen to her relationship, her family, and most importantly, herself.

Jenny Han surprised readers in May 2016 with the announcement of Always and Forever, Lara Jean, the third installment to her intended two book series following the life of Lara Jean Song. Though Han describes the first two books, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and P.S. I Still Love You, as two halves of a heart, Han went on to explain how she felt that Lara Jean and Peter’s stories were left unfinished. Look forward to the this surprise follow-up, releasing May 2. (Simon & Schuster. May)

Sixteen-year-old Anna Arden is barred from society by a defect of blood. Though her family is part of the Luminate, powerful users of magic, she is Barren, unable to perform the simplest spells. Anna would do anything to belong. But her fate takes another course when she inadvertently breaks her sister’s débutante spell. Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves is the first book in a YA fantasy trilogy in which one girl upsets a social order built on a trifecta of blood, money, and magic. (Knopf. April) Our discussion group meets Thursday March 16 at 7:00 pm.

At the age of four, Sebastian Cody accidentally shot and killed his infant sister. Ten years later, Sebastian remains guilt-ridden, and with his best friend away for the summer, he has little to distract him from his darkest thoughts: it took a gun to get him into this, now he needs a gun to get out. Unflinching and honest, Bang by Barry Lyga is the story of one boy and one moment in time that cannot be reclaimed. (Little, Brown. April) Our discussion group meets Thursday April 13 at 7:00 pm.