Look out for these Raincoast Books on CBC's Spring 2019 Canadian Fiction list!

Raincoast has two books on CBC Book's newly-released Spring 2019 Canadian Fiction list! A Deadly Divide by Ausma Zehanat Khan will be on sale Feb 12/2019, and Radicalized by Cory Doctorow comes out March 19/2019.

What We're Reading This Holiday Season

I know how I'll be spending my holidays (that is, when I'm not partaking in all the delicious food and festivities). I'm giving my "To Be Read" pile some attention! I asked my fellow Deweys what's on their "To Be Read" piles and this is what they said:

                                    Lahring:                                      

Wake by Anna Hope
(Random House)

Tim:

I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

(Little Brown & Company)

Laureen:

HYDE by Daniel Levine 

(Houghton Mifflin Harourt)

Rosalyn:

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

(Reagan Arthur Books)

Saffron:

The Paris Architect: A Novel

by Charles Belfoure

(Sourcebooks)

Margot:

The Devil I Know by Claire Kilroy

(Grove Atlantic)

Janet:

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

(Random House)

Caught by Lisa Moore

(Anansi)

How to Get Along With Women: Short Stories 

By Elisabeth de Mariaffi

(Invisible Printing)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 

(Little, Brown and Company)

Levels of Life by Julian Barnes 

(Knopf)

The Circle by Dave Eggers

(Knopf)

The Dewey Divas and Dudes Top 5: Pamela's Picks!

I hope after all these reading suggestions your To Be Read piles are rapidly growing by now! My next list comes from Pamela Frick, a former public librarian who has been working as an adult selections specialist with Whitehots for the last two years. For Pamela, compiling this list was very difficult as she is very close to reading 100 books this year! Here are Pamela's picks:

1. The Orenda by Joseph Boyden (Penguin)

"An important, beautiful and sometimes horrendous novel of Canada’s First Nations history, as told by a masterful Canadian storyteller."

2. The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild by Hannah Rothschild (Knopf)

"Combining for me my love of reading and jazz is this biography of Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koeigswarter (nee Rothschild), also known as Nica, the Jazz Baroness, told against the backdrop of her family history and the events of the twentieth century."

3. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Morrow)

"Gaiman confronts the disparate views of adults and children as the narrator revisits the scenes of his childhood."

4. Transatlantic by Column McCann (HarperCollins)

"Seldom does a book bring me to tears but there was a moment in the final chapter when I was very close." 

5. Mr. Seldon's Map of China by Timothy Brook (Anansi)

"Brook gives us a brief view of England and China (also other trading nations such as The Netherlands and Spain) but concentrates more on the possible provenance of the map."

The Dewey Divas and Dudes Top 5: Chris' Picks!

If you love sci-fi and fantasy and you haven't visited Bakka Phoenix Books in Toronto, then you are missing out! Bakka Phoenix Books is the oldest sci-fi/fantasy bookstore in Canada and it is amazing! I called on the manager, Chris Szego, for her top picks of the year. I knew she was a trusted and well-read source but can you believe she reads on average 10 books a week?! While I am beyond impressed (and slightly jealous) she warned me that it was very difficult for her to only pick five. Here are her picks:

1. Written in Red: A Novel of the Others by Anne Bishop (Roc Hardcover)

"A thoroughly enjoyable urban fantasy in which humans are not the dominant species on the planet. A fun read: I'm looking forward to the next book in the series."

2. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield (Random House) 

"I say this unironically, as an adult: Chris Hadfield is my hero.

His intelligence, humour, and above all his sheer delight in his work is a constant inspiration. Read this book."

3. A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge (MacMillan)

"Hardinge's impressive originality is on full display in this story about the underground city of Caverna. The city's denizens can create wines to make you forget your dreams; perfumes to send you to sleep, and cheeses that can kill -- but they cannot make any facial expressions until they are taught how. Into this world falls young Neverfell, whose face reflects everything that she feels... and Caverna will never be the same."

4. Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn (Ace Hardcover) 

"Josetta may be a princess, but she will not allow her entire life to be eaten by court intrigue. Rafe is a gambler who is looking to make something more of his life. When they meet, the world will change in ways they can't even imagine. I already want more."

5. An Inquiry Into Love and Death by Simone St. James (NAL Trade)

"In post WWI England, a young woman encounters a number of mysteries when she travels to a small town to settle the affairs of her recently deceased uncle. Beautifully written, with a definite feel for the historical period. (And Canadian!)"

  

The Dewey Divas and Dudes Top 5: Ron's Picks!

I keep hearing about how difficult it's been for each of my Top 5 contributors to narrow their favorites and I don't blame them. There have been so many amazing books in 2013! The next list of recommendations comes from Ron Stadnik, Print Manager at Library Bound in Waterloo. Here are his top picks:

1. The Deep Whatsis by Peter Mattei (HarperCollins)

"Mad Men meets Fight Club by way of American Psycho."

2. A Map of Tulsa by Benjamin Lytal (Penguin)

"Coming of age tale by a first time novelist; quite possibly the best reviewed book of adult fiction this year. A reminder of why I love the work I do."

3. With Charity for All by Ken Stern (Doubleday)

"An expose of the seldom scrutinized state of the charitable/non-profit sector in the U.S. An absolute must read, I just wish for a book that looked at the situation in Canada, although I sadly suspect it would be analogous."

4. Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga by Benjamin Lorr (St. Martin's Press)

"Part transformative memoir, part expose of yoga guru Bikram Choudhury, this is at its heart a look at obsession, which makes it for readers of The Orchid Thief as much as anyone that can't through the day without a downward facing dog."

5. The Circle by Dave Eggers (Knopf Canada)

"For readers of Walker Percy and fans of Christopher Hitchens, this would make a great book club pick. With apologies to Timothy Leary, I hope it’ll make inspire people to  “turn off, unplug, drop out” or at least examine the role of technology in their lives more closely."
  

Fascinating Debut Novel. . .

With my current interest in fiction set in Germany, this new debut novel - The History of History by Ida Hattemer-Higgins - looks fascinating and I hope to get to it soon.  The Guardian just ran this piece calling Hattemer-Higgins "one to watch", and it sent me to the author's website where she writes about her inspiration for the book which she describes as, "a single scream, one long lament for the tragedy of unbearable memory."  She worked as a tour guide at the concentration camp memorial of Sachsenhausen and her encounter with a tourist searching for his family's history triggered an emotional response that led to her writing this novel about memory and amnesia, both on a personal and national level.