Bookville 2024 Lists

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Showing 33–48 of 101 results

Garden Inventories

By: Mariam Pirbhai

$20.00

After a lifetime of traversing continents and cities, Mariam Pirbhai found herself in Waterloo, Ontario, and there she began to garden. As she looks to local nurseries, neighbourhood gardens and nature trails for inspiration, she discovers that plants are not so very different from people. They, too, can be uprooted, transplanted – even naturalized. They, too, can behave as a colonizing or invasive species. And they, too, must learn to adapt to a new land before calling it home. In Garden Inventories, Pirbhai brings her scholar’s eye, her love of story and an irrepressible sense of humour to bear on the questions of how we interact with the land around us, from what it means to create a garden through the haze of nostalgia, to the way tradition and nature are bound up in cultural ideals such as “cottage country,” or even the great Canadian wilderness. Roses, mulberries, tamarinds and Jack pines wend their way through these essays as Pirbhai pays close attention to the stories of the plants, as well as the people, that have accompanied her journey to find home. Throughout, she shows us the layers of history and culture that infuse our understandings of land, place and belonging, revealing how a garden carries within it the story of a life – of family, home, culture and heritage – if not also the history of a world.
Half-Cracked

By: Mary-Colin Chisholm

$18.95

Sisters Sissy and Yewina have been on their own for who knows how long exactly. It’s just them (and their hens) in a weathered farmhouse miles from town. Their rural, woodsy East Coast community has been losing residents for years, but the almost-forgotten stories have lived on for the sisters in different ways. While Yewina is more guarded and level-headed, dreamer Sissy has a flair for twisting fact with fantasy. When Scott, a folklorist from Scottsdale, Arizona, shows up at their door in hopes of chronicling whispers, he’s in for much more of a story than he expected. This unique and quirky ode to folklore storytelling and to small lives lived large illuminates how living our own truths can make us legends.
Her Body Among Animals

By: Paola Ferrante

$23.00

Winner of a 2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award
Nominated for a 2023 Shirley Jackson Award
Shortlisted for the 2023 Danuta Gleed Literary Award

In this genre-bending debut collection merging horror, fairy tales, pop culture, and sci-fi, women challenge the boundaries placed on their bodies while living in a world “among animals,” where violence is intertwined with bizarre ecological disruptions.

A sentient sex robot goes against her programming; a grad student living with depression is weighed down by an ever-present albatross; an unhappy wife turns into a spider; a boy with a dark secret is haunted by dolls; a couple bound for a colony on Mars take a road trip through Texas; a girl fights to save her sister from growing a mermaid tail like their absent mother.

Magical yet human, haunted and haunting, these stories act as a surreal documentation of the mistakes in systems of the past that remain very much in the present. Ferrante investigates toxic masculinity and the devastation it enacts upon women and our planet, delving into the universal undercurrent of ecological anxiety in the face of such toxicity, and the personal experience of being a new mother concerned about the future her child will face.

Through these confrontations of the complexity of living in a woman’s body, Her Body Among Animals moves us from hopelessness to a future of resilience and possibility.
I Am Full

By: Dan Yashinsky

$19.95

Dan Yashinsky’s son Jacob died tragically in a car accident at the age of 26. Dan, Jacob and Jacob’s best friend Effie were driving back to Toronto after a magical trip to Montreal when Dan fell asleep at the wheel and crashed. Dan and Effie survived, but Jacob did not. When the unimaginable happens–a parent is still somehow here but their child is gone–all that’s left are stories. In the process of grieving his son, Dan realized that he was now Jacob’s storykeeper, and I Am Full is Jacob’s story.

Jacob’s death is the least interesting thing about him. How he lived, the kind of man he became, is what matters most. All his life, Jacob had struggled with Prader-Willi Syndrome, but rather than let it defeat him, he became an advocate for people suffering from PWS as well as people coping with various other disabilities. He was a jewelry-maker, a photographer, a songwriter, a TPS crossing guard, and an avid fisherman. Six months after Jacob’s death, Dan began to gather and create the texts that make up this chronicle, all the while guided by Jacob’s imagined voice. The events in I Am Full are drawn from many periods of Jacob’s life. Much of it–poems, sayings, speeches, letters, notes–are in Jacob’s own words and the rest is told in his imagined voice narrating things that Dan saw him do or hear him talk about. Jacob’s voice has been captured and carried in this unique book, which goes beyond the terrible grief of losing a child to preserving and sharing his story.
Imagining Imagining

By: Gary Barwin

$22.00

Award-winning author Gary Barwin has written poems, novels and books for children. He’s composed music, created multimedia art and performed around the world. Now he has turned his talented pen to essays. In Imagining Imagining: Essays on Language, Identity and Infinity Barwin thinks deeply about big ideas: story and identity; art and death; how we communicate and why we dream. From his childhood home in Ireland to his long-time home in Hamilton, Barwin shares the thoughts that keep him up at night (literally) and the ideas that keep him creating. Filled with witty asides, wise stories and a generosity of spirit that is unmistakable, these are essays that readers will turn to again and again.
In the Belly of the Sphinx

By: Grant Buday

$25.00

Grant Buday’s new novel is an eccentric coming-of-age story that captures the late-Victorian fascination with ancient Egypt, auras, and the afterlife.

Smart, stubborn, and forthright Pearl Greyland-Smith is nine years old when we first meet her, in 1882. She lives with her widowed mother, Florence, in Victoria’s James Bay neighbourhood. Pearl’s father was a Hussar who died in Afghanistan, or that’s what Florence has always told Pearl. But when an Irish woman named Cassidy arrives at their door and addresses Florence as Sinead, Pearl begins to realize she may not know very much about her origins at all.

An avid reader with a rich inner life, as Pearl grows up she nonetheless confronts the scarcity of choices available to women. Yet while lacking in certain amenities, Pearl and Florence’s days are anything but dull, populated by characters easily at home in a Dickens novel: the earnest and enigmatic amateur scientist Charles Gloster, their bawdy, theosophist housemaid Carpy, inspector Osmo Beattie, and imperialist newspaper columnist Harry Hearne. Then a fateful encounter at a solstice fête throws Pearl’s whole future into question.

This delightful coming-of-age story, imbued with the Victorian fascination for auras and the afterlife, will appeal to readers of Patrick DeWitt and Eleanor Catton. Once again Grant Buday has turned distant West Coast history upside down and created a vivid world intimately relevant to us today.
In the Country in the Dark

By: Daryl Sneath

$19.95

When Landon and Joy meet they feel an instant connection and quickly become inseparable. One day shortly after they’ve met, they take a trip to view The Hart Farm, an idyllic property located in a remote area. It’s perfect, with room for Landon to set up his carpentry shop and Joy to have an art studio. The real estate agent feels complete disclosure of the property’s tragic and potentially violent past is necessary but Landon and Joy decide ignorance is bliss and ask to not be told the details. They’re in love and smitten with the farm and decide on the spot to buy it.

As they spend their days creating art, reading, cooking for each other, listening to music, and making love, they can barely believe their good fortune. However, when the heat of summer–as well as their initial infatuation–begins to wane, Landon and Joy realize how little they know about each other or the house they now call home. They begin to feel a mounting sense of danger and uncertainty about what they used to delight in–the mysterious and tragic history of The Hart Farm, the wolves that prowl in the dark of night, and the near stranger they share a bed with.

In the Country in the Dark is a thrilling psychological exploration of the secrets we keep and why, the obsessions we live with, the love we all need, the family we sometimes find–and the lengths we might go to keep it.
Inescapable: A Ghost Story

By: D.K. Stone

$22.00

Trying to come to terms with the passing of her husband, an acclaimed and controversial Canadian artist, Aimee Westerberg is spiralling into depression instead. Her identity as George Westerberg’s younger second wife has thrown her into a fight with his family over the estate, Troubled and grieving, Aimee escapes into her work as an art-restorer at Calgary’s Glenbow museum, only to find herself pursued by Bear Cardinal, a journalist writing an exposé on the infamous artist’s entangled life. But dealing with Bear is far from her only worry… As Aimee tries to piece together the true character of her late husband, her fragmented memories come into contact with what appears to be a phantom version of George. Is this obsessive ghost truly her husband, determined to maintain his hold on her, or some darker suggestion of Aimee’s own mind? Unable to mourn while tormented by a poltergeist, Aimee must figure out how to un-tether herself from her troubled past, and escape forces from both this world and beyond.
Joe Pete

By: Ian McCulloch

$23.95

Sandy Mecowatch, a descendant of Missinabi Cree people, falls through the ice leaving behind his wife Louise and eleven year old daughter Alison “Joe Pete”. Joe Pete’s grief propels her to risk searching for her father in the same winter conditions that took him. Along with her obedient and protective cousin Simon, they embark on a journey where they will find more than they anticipated buried beneath the snow. Their journey will unlock the ancestors and spirits embedded in the present who call back to a past marked by war and kinship, by conflict and wisdom that continue to contour their trajectory towards the future.
Lásko

By: Catherine Cooper

$24.95

“Extraordinary—and totally engrossing. Lásko is at once an intimate tale of personal awakening, a love story, and a provocative parable about the lures and dangers of influence.” JOHANNA SKIBSRUD, author of Island

When Mája was seven, her mother disappeared. Now Mája has an urge to do the same. She leaves her fiancé in Canada and follows signs that she believes are leading her to the Czech Republic, her mother’s home country.

In Prague, she falls in love with Kuba, a charismatic musician who is a rising star in Czech New Age circles. As she navigates this irresistible and overwhelming relationship, Mája is guided by dreams, visions, and synchronicities, but she also suffers from a mysterious illness and the unshakeable sense that something is terribly wrong.

Revealing both the falseness and truth of the stories we tell ourselves, Catherine Cooper’s novel is sharply observed, darkly funny, and ultimately moving—a profound meditation on the pain and potency of love.
Leaving Wisdom

By: Sharon Butala

$24.95

Sharon Butala’s new novel begins with the wrong kind of bang when retiring social worker Judith falls on the ice on the way to her retirement party. The debilitating concussion that follows seems to shake loose a confusing whirl of memories.

Judith is a mother of four, and her relationships with her daughters are complicated. They all seem to have men trouble, except for the wild daughter who seems to have settled down, inexplicably to Judith, in Jerusalem. With her ears still ringing and her strength compromised by a shaky recovery, Judith leaves Calgary and, to everyone’s bewilderment, moves back to the town near the family farm. In Wisdom, Saskatchewan, she confronts many unanswered questions: Why was her father, a World War Two vet, so troubled? What are her brother and sister hiding from her? As she pursues answers to unsolved mysteries in her own life, more complicated and wider ranging questions arise.

Living in a small town is a shock after the anonymity of a big city. Judith finds herself exposed to watchful neighbours, and she is watchful in turn, seeing things that are mystifying at first — and then alarming. Small town bigotry and what looks like a serious crime unfolding in the house next door make her return even more difficult — what is she doing here? Does she have enough wisdom to unravel her past? Does she have a future in a place where she is not exactly welcome?

This thought-provoking and very readable tale shows not only the suffering that comes from family secrets, but also unfolds one woman?s late life awakening to the complex shadows cast by World War Two and the Holocaust.
Little Russia

By: Francis Desharnais

$24.95

“Everyone should read it.”
–Mike Donachie, The Toronto Star

A small village in the north of Quebec, Guyenne is run as a cooperative, with 50% of the inhabitants’ paychecks going into a communal pot to develop the colony–hence the village’s nickname of “Little Russia.” Based on the memories of author Francis Desharnais’ grandparents, who lived in Guyenne from 1948 to 1968, this moving graphic novel delves into family history to explore Canada’s rural heritage through the lens of both grassroots socialism and early feminism. An intimate story of epic scale, and the winner of multiple “Best Book” awards, Little Russia is a fascinating foray into an unusual and largely forgotten social experiment.
Livingsky

By: Anthony Bidulka

$22.00

Going home is not always the best answer. Forced to leave behind her big city dreams, Merry Bell returns to Livingsky Saskatchewan to start over. Living with plenty of secrets, but no money, friends, or place to live during a prairie winter-all while trying to start her own PI business-proves to be more challenging than she imagined. With a first case that quickly turns more dangerous than it first appeared, Merry must deal with a dodgy client, the murder of the surgeon who performed her gender affirming surgery, and more than one mysterious stranger.

For the first time since his award-winning Russell Quant novels, Bidulka begins a new mystery series, continuing in his tradition of presenting under-represented characters and settings that immediately feel familiar and beloved, while tugging at heart strings and tickling your funny bone. Livingsky easily matches the beauty and tenderness of Going to Beautiful while delivering a page-turning mystery.
Lonely Boys

By: Sophie Bédard

$27.95

What can be done about the friendships that are bound to break your heart?After a year of radio silence, Ella bursts back into the lives of her former roommates, Jen and Lucie. Her intentions seem simple enough: she wants to mend fences and regain their trust. But it won’t be that easy. Lonely Boys is a story of friendship, sisterhood and self-affirmation. It captures life at twenty-something as three young women navigate the challenges of work, sex and romantic relationships, all the while trying to hold on to the connection they share despite the hurt it carries.
Making Up the Gods

By: Marion Agnew

$22.95

Making Up the Gods is equal parts quirky and sincere in its thoughtful exploration of tragedy and recovery, of new and old relationships, and of deeper questions of when to let the past rest.

Simone, a retired widow, would live a quiet and isolated life, if not for the lingering ghosts of her family. One day, Simone is visited at her home by a man named Martin claiming to be her cousin. When Martin asks if Simone is willing to sell her cottage by the lake, a proposition made sweeter by the prospect of a condo in Florida, Simone, though pleased at the thought of a cousin, also questions his intentions.

Where among her past has Martin even come from, and why has he emerged in this moment? The burden of making a decision is all the more difficult because Simone has agreed to take care of a friend’s nine-year-old boy, Chen, for a short time while his mother enjoys a much-needed vacation. Simone finds her match in Chen, a curious and precocious boy grieving the loss of his father and stepbrother in an accident that has shaken the entire community.

Can Simone hide her ability to see her family ghosts? Will Martin succeed in extorting Simone’s beloved home–and worse, is he a danger to Chen? Because of Chen and Martin, Simone is caught between her ties to the past and her desire to embrace the company of the living.
Mary Pratt: A Love Affair with Vision

By: Anne Koval

$45.00

Shortlisted, New Brunswick Book Award (Non-Fiction)

Mary Pratt’s art has captivated millions of Canadians. Her luminescent paintings capture reality in a way that few artists have been able to achieve — the chip in a glass bowl, the play of light across a dish-strewn supper table, the vulnerability of a naked woman. Replete with symbolism, Pratt’s work elevates the traditional still life by transforming the everyday into the iconic.

Art historian Anne Koval wrote Mary Pratt: A Love Affair with Vision in close consultation with Pratt. The book is informed by extensive interviews with the artist, and her family, friends, and colleagues and by unprecedented access to Pratt’s archival holdings at Mount Allison University. This in-depth study of Pratt’s life and work explores the complex issues of gender, feminism, and realism in Canadian art, resulting in a richly layered biography of an artist who redefined the visual culture of her period and whose art and life intersect in varied and surprising ways.