Author: ALU Editor
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Gift Guide Week: Francine Cunningham
For today’s ALU Gift Guide picks, Francine Cunningham, author of God Isn’t Here Today (Invisible Publishing) and On/Me (Caitlin Press) gives us her holiday recommendations — from something for the sci-fi nerd in your life, to your gossipy co-worker.
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Gift Guide Week: Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch and H. Felix Chau Bradley
For this instalment of ALU Gift Guide Week, writers Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch and H. Felix Chau Bradley have teamed up; they each recommend two faves, and then join in on a recommendation (let’s call it doubly-recommended). In addition to being Metonymy Press authors (of The Good Arabs and Personal Attention Roleplay, respectively) Eli Tareq and Felix lend…
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Gift Guide Week: Matthew Stepanic
We teamed up with Matthew Stepanic, writer, and poet, as well as co-founder of Glass Buffalo and Glass Bookshop, for today’s gift guide series. Stepanic tells us that, “My main mission on this good green earth is to help as many folks as possible discover that poetry is not the intimidating genre they studied in…
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Gift Guide Week: Taslim Burkowicz
Author of Chocolate Cherry Chai and Ruby Red Skies (both Roseway Publishing) Taslim Burkowicz kicks off 2022’s Gift Guide Week with four stellar fiction picks and one memoir for the flapper wannabe, dystopia watcher, or productive grandparent (plus two more!) on your list.
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Best Bets: CanLit Classics, Present and Future
It’s the final day of Best Bets, and we’re closing out our fortnight of recommendations with two CanLit classics. One is a gorgeous new illustrated edition of W.O. Mitchell’s timeless book, Who Has Seen the Wind (Freehand Books), and the other is a classic-to-be, Brian Thomas Issac’s award-winning, heartbreaking coming-of-age novel, All the Quiet Places (Touchwood Editions). Get…
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Best Bets for cli-po (climate poetry)
Today’s ALU Best Bets are for those readers that connect with nature and the world around them while holding a poetic outlook — for the cli-po (climate poetry) reader. How to Hold a Pebble (NeWest Press) by Jaspreet Singh presents intimate engagements with memory, place, language, migration, while also exploring strategies of survival. Wet Dream…
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Best Bets: For littles
We’ll be the first to admit it: we’ve been a little remiss on these Best Bets recommendations thus far. What about the kids? Fear not, with two gorgeous picture books incoming. Gift the sweet bedtime story Bedtime in Nunatsiavutby Raeann Brown (Arsenal Pulp Press) and the getting-over-travel-anxiety story Lola Flies Alone (Running the Goat), by Bill Richardson and illustrated…
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Best Bets for queens (or kings) of quirk
Peculiar plot lines, strange twists and turns, today’s Best Bets are for the queens (or kings) of quirk. In Muckbang (Linda Leith Publishing) by Fanie Demeule, Kim Delorme is uninterested in anything behind her computer screen and throws herself into a challenge that shocks everyone in her life. Something’s Burning(At Bay Press) by Janet Trull…
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Best Bets: Sports journeys
Sports fans, this Best Bets day is for you (or your like-minded giftees). We recommend Jason Smith’s gritty baseball underdog novel The Closer (Now or Never) and sportswriter Joshua Kloke’s The Voyageurs (Dundurn Press), a look at the meteoric rise of the Canadian men’s soccer team and their recent qualification for the World Cup.
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Best Bets for LGBTQ+ reads
Today’s Best Bets are LGBTQ+ reads; for the poetic reader who loves queer theory. LOTE (Metonymy Press) by Shola von Reinhold takes us through the art world and curates a queer historical scene breaking it open and reveling in it. Horrible Dance (Brick Books) by Avery Lake is a brilliant poetic debut about gender-based violence…
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Best Bets: For the helpers
These Best Bets are for the helpers that are engaged in community for when times get difficult. In Shadows and Light (Goose Lane Editions) emergency physician Heather Patterson takes readers to the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic and giving them an illuminating, behind-the-scenes view of the real impact of the virus through photography. Rescue Me…
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Best Bets: For superfans
These Best Bets are for those superfans on your list: they saw the concert, joined the fanclub, bought the t-shirt. Music fans will naturally gravitate to the in-depth knowledge in the second edition of The Bob Dylan Albums by Anthony Varesi (Guernica Editions), and pop culture fanatics will live for the behind-the-scenes stories in Linda Schuyler’s…
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Best Bets: For Fantasic Nonfiction
Today’s Best Bet picks are two fantastic works of nonfiction. Good Mom on Paper (Book*hug Press) edited by, Stacey May Fowles and Jen Sookfong Lee, is a collection of twenty essays that goes beyond the clichés to explore the complicated relationship between motherhood and creativity. 305 Lost Buildings of Canada (Goose Lane Editions) by Raymond…
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Best Bets: For “here and there” reads
Our first set of Best Bets picks are two novels featuring characters on the move, changing their surroundings in the hope of finding something better. Almost Visible by Michelle Sinclair (Baraka Books) and Yellow Watch by Carmelinda Scian (Mawenzi House) would be the perfect gift for the introspective, empathetic reader who loves reading about lives different from their…
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Best Bets: Something for Everyone
It’s that time of year! This holiday season, the All Lit Up editors present Best Bets: 20 surefire book hits for everyone on your list, all at 15% off! There really is something for everyone; if you’re looking to cross a bunch of names off your gift list, read on.