With just days to go before Christmas, we want to get these recommendations on your radar.
With just days to go before Christmas, we wanted to get these recommendations onto your radar. Here are few more books to satisfy the particular types on your shopping list.
*****
For Your Favourite Mountain Climber
Rising Abruptly, by Gisèle Villeneuve
Gisèle Villeneuve’s short stories test the elastic pull between passion and terror. For inspiration, Villeneuve turned to her personal history to examine what lures urban dwellers outdoors, to test themselves against peaks and valleys. Using the overarching metaphor of mountain climbing, she plays with form, language, and narrative to reveal our fears, our loves, our passions. Rising Abruptly is a perfect companion for anyone who likes to travel, loves a climber, or simply glories in the allure of the mountains.
Les Faux Bourgeois Bistro is an award-winning French bistro situated at the awkward intersection of Kingsway and Fraser Street in an equally disjointed neighbourhood in East Vancouver. Founded in 2007, Les Faux Bourgeois soon became a beacon of French bistro "amor" and garnered a loyal clientele and critical acclaim to match.
Les Fauxbo, now in its eighth year, continues to pump out bistro-love, with a classic French bistro cuisine, simple yet elegant, in a vibrant and unpretentious setting. The recipes are traditional, with a slight “West Coast' tweak, and with an understanding that even simple dishes can be elevated with the proper time and attention.
Bistro cuisine has always navigated the balance between rich ingredients and a lighter touch of French cooking. The names of the dishes are simple and evocative: pate de campagne, duck confit, cassoulet, boudin noir, and the ubiquitous “steak frites,' for example.
Many have heard of these dishes, and some have tried them. The Fauxbo book will endeavor to walk the reader through the preparation of these classics, while sharing some anecdotal culinary history and literary tidbits along the way.
Globe and Mail bestselling author Robert C. Parsons presents more than fifty exciting stories of high-seas adventure! Set mainly along the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador in the 1800s and 1900s, these are true stories of men and women who faced the deadly Atlantic Ocean—and won.
FeaturingAnn Harvey of Isle aux Morts, a teenaged girl who helped rescue 160 passengers of the doomed brig Dispatch in 1828; George Lake of Fortune, captain of the schooner George Ewart, who narrowly escaped death when an iron steamer smashed into his vessel off the coast of Spain in 1917; Captain Frank Poole of Belleoram and crew of the schooner Dorothy P. Sarty, who in 1954 were shipwrecked and rowed twenty-five miles to shore in a lifeboat . . . and even refused a lift from a passing coal carrier; Captain Arthur Jackman of Renews and crew of the Plover, who in 1890 were at death's door after the sinking of their steamship but were rescued in the nick of time; Henry Taylor of Newfoundland, captain of the barque Constance, who in 1884 was awarded by the Italian Admiralty for rescuing three Italian harbour pilots; the forty-six men and seventeen women who miraculously escaped the wreck of the steamer Capulet after it went aground at St. Shotts in 1896; and many more!
When singer, musician, and broadcast journalist Malka Marom had the opportunity to interview Joni Mitchell in 1973, she was eager to reconnect with the performer she’d first met late one night in 1966 at a Yorkville coffeehouse. More conversations followed over the next four decades of friendship, and it was only after Joni and Malka completed their most recent recorded interview, in 2012, that Malka discovered the heart of their discussions: the creative process.
In Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words, Joni and Malka follow this thread through seven decades of life and art, discussing the influence of Joni’s childhood, love and loss, playing dives and huge festivals, acclaim and criticism, poverty and affluence, glamorous triumphs and tragic mistakes.
This riveting narrative, told in interviews, lyrics, paintings, and photographs, is shared in the hope of illuminating a timeless body of work and inspiring others.
A novel of crime and passion in nineteenth-century Newfoundland. Alexander Pindikowsky, a Polish artist working in Heart’s Content, is arrested in 1880 for the crime of forgery. He is sentenced to fifteen months at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s. Governor John Hawley Glover, when made aware of Pindikowsky’s talent, arranges for the prisoner to serve part of his sentence in a most unusual way—designing and painting ceiling frescoes at Government House. Ellen Dormody, a parlour maid at Government House, witnesses first-hand the brilliance of Alexander’s artistry. She is at once captivated by the mysterious painter.
Inspired by true events, Art Love Forgery is a story of forbidden love in nineteenth-century St. John’s, a legend that lives on within the walls and ceilings of Government House.
My So-Called Life lasted only 19 episodes from 1994 to 1995, but in that time it earned many devoted viewers, including the showrunners who would usher in the teen TV boom of the late ’90s and the new millennium. With its focus on 15-year-old Angela Chase’s search for her identity, MSCL’s realistic representation of adolescence on TV was groundbreaking; without her there would be no Buffy or Felicity, Rory Gilmore or Veronica Mars.
The series’ broadcast coincided with the arrival of third-wave feminism, the first feminist movement to make teen voices a priority, and Angela became their small-screen spokesperson. From her perspective, MSCL explored gender, identity, sexuality, race, class, body image, and other issues vital to the third wave (and the world).
To this day, passionate fans dissect everything from what Rickie Vasquez did for gay representation to what Jordan Catalano did for leaning, and Soraya Roberts makes an invaluable contribution to that conversation with In My Humble Opinion.
Sara Jewell has collected lots of addresses—eighteen in total—including four in Vancouver, British Columbia, and three in her hometown of Cobourg, Ontario. But there was one address that always remained constant: Pugwash Point Road in rural Nova Scotia. She was nine years old the first time her family vacationed in the small fishing village about an hour from the New Brunswick border, and the red soil stained her heart. Life, as it's wont to do, eventually took Jewell away from the east coast. But when her marriage and big city life started to crumble, she only wanted one thing: a fresh start in Pugwash.
Field Notes includes forty-one essays on the differences, both subtle and drastic, between city life and country living. From curious neighbours and unpredictable weather to the reality of roadkill and the wonders of wildlife, awardwinning narrative journalist Sara Jewell strikes the perfect balance between honest self-examination and humorous observation.
From CBC Radio's most beloved satirical comedy team comes This is That: Travel Guide to Canada, a hilariously outrageous parody of the travel guide genre and what it means to visit Canada. Searching for a weekend away with the kids? This is That: Travel Guide to Canada will teach you how to navigate the twelve petting zoos of Etobicoke and how to avoid pickpockets in Kamloops. Planning your summer holiday? Keep in mind that the city of Brandon, Manitoba, is closed for annual maintenance between July 12 and August 19 and that tipping your server in Swift Current is offensive. Presented in the familiar casing of a traditional travel guidebook, à la Lonely Planet or Rough Guide, This is That: Travel Guide to Canada takes readers on a farcical—and unbelievable—journey from coast to coast to coast to coast to coast. This faux guide also includes essential travel tips, such as useful Canadian phrases to locate the bathroom, best places to portage, and most spectacular malls above sea level.
