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Authors for Indies: It's This Saturday!

April 28, 2015 · Tagged Wayne Johnston, Robertson Davies, Plum Johnson, Helen Humphreys, David O'Keefe, Allison Baggio, Alison Pick, Emily St. John Mandel, Authors for Indies, Alistair MacLeod, Kathleen Winter, Suzanne Alyssa Andrew, Barbara Gowdy, Sarah Henstra

Authors for Indies is this excellent event where Canadian writers, in support of our country's brilliant indie bookstores, go in on May 2 to handsell books to customers. Not just May 2—MAY 2 THIS SATURDAY!

Authors for Indies is an upcoming event where Canadian writers go into our country's indie bookstores on May 2 to handsell books to customers. Not just May 2—MAY 2 THIS SATURDAY! Find out where the nearest Author for Indies bookstore is for you right here.

The Avid Reader bookstore in Cobourg, Ontario, is lucky to have authors Wayne Johnston, Allison Baggio, Sarah Henstra, and Plum Johnson as volunteers on Saturday—and we're lucky to have a sneak peek at what they'll be recommending. This, right here, could fuel a brilliant reading year for just about anyone.

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fifthbusiness
lostsaltgiftofbood

Wayne Johnston, author of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and more, will be recommending Alistair MacLeod's The Lost Salt Gift of Blood and Robertson Davies' Fifth Business.

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood, one of Canada's most enduring classics, was last recommended on 49th Shelf by Michael Petrou, who wrote that it is in this book that MacLeod's writing is at its "most evocative, limpid, and heart-wrenching."

And you can see just a fraction of the ways Fifth Business has made its mark by scrolling down on this page.

 

onedayinaugust
boundless
wilddogs

Plum Johnson, author of They Left Us Everything, which Kerry wrote about just last week, will be recommending Wild Dogs, by Helen Humphreys; Boundless, by Kathleen Winter; and One Day in August, by David O'Keefe.

Boundless and One Day in August were all over non-fiction award shortlists in 2014 and early-2015;  while Wild Dogs made an indelible impression in 2004–2005, winning the Lambda Award and eliciting rave reviews.

 

theromantic
stationeleven
betweengods

Allison Baggio, author of Girl in Shades and In the Body, will be sharing her love of Between Gods, by Alison Pick; The Romantic, by Barbara Gowdy; and Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel.

Of Allison's picks:

  • Between Gods was a finalist for the BC National Award for Non-Fiction and a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2014;
  • The Romantic was described as a "miracle" (yet another from Gowdy) by the Globe and Mail;
  • The National Post called Station Eleven "gracefully written and suspenseful"; the book was longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction in the US.

 

circleofstones

Sarah Henstra, whose first YA novel, Mad Miss Mimic, is about to hit the stores, will be telling Avid Reader customers about Circle of Stones, by Suzanne Alyssa Andrew, which was the choice of none other than Robert J. Wiersema in this post.

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Read more Authors for Indies picks (Angie Abdou, Guy Gavriel Kay, Eden Robinson, Alissa York, Jacqueline Baker, Adam Louis Schroeder, Terry Fallis, and Robert J. Wiersema) right here.