Bookville Lists

Browse the books that make up Bookville.

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  • Bookville 2023 - Drama & Plays

    Bookville 2023 – Drama & Plays

    For those with a flair for the dramatic, browse these handpicked Canadian plays! Read a play before you see it, or revisit a favourite.
  • Bookville 2023 - Fiction

    Bookville 2023 – Fiction

    Explore a wide range of Bookville fiction picks: from humorous, beach-ready reads to serious dramas to award-winners, there's something for every type of reader in this collection of fiction books.
  • Bookville 2023 - Graphic Novels

    Bookville 2023 – Graphic Novels

    Who said books with pictures were just for kids? This selection of graphic novels are perfect for the Bookville reader who loves gorgeous, engaging, and fun illustrations alongside a riveting narrative.
  • Bookville 2023 - Indigenous Lit

    Bookville 2023 – Indigenous Lit

    Browse Bookville's selection of Indigenous-authored books to get a sense of the diversity of voices and tremendous talent these writers have: perfect for gifting or to read yourself (or both!).
  • Bookville 2023 - Kids

    Bookville 2023 – Kids

    For the littlest Bookville citizens, browse this selection of Canadian-authored kids books.
  • Bookville 2023 - Mystery & Crime

    Bookville 2023 – Mystery & Crime

    There's a mystery afoot in Bookville… and you, sleuthing reader, can help solve it! Browse our selection of whodunits and thrilling crime fiction.
  • Bookville 2023 - Nonfiction

    Bookville 2023 – Nonfiction

    For the reader who likes fact more than fiction. Memoirs, art books, sports, social justice reads, and more: they're all to be found here among Bookville's nonfiction picks.
  • Bookville 2023 - Poetry

    Bookville 2023 – Poetry

    We at Bookville are proud purveyors of poetry: whether you're new to poetry or a seasoned poetry pro, you'll find beautiful poems with our picks below (that rhymed, didn't it?).

All Books in this Collection

Showing 97–107 of 107 results

  • Two Ways About It

    Two Ways About It

    $22.95

    Like most Canadian playwrights of his generation, John Lazarus figured out the craft on his own. In doing that, he discovered a technique involving a dual approach: constructing plot on the one hand and improvising dialogue on the other. He’s been using that technique since 1977 and teaching it to others since 1990, and it works–for himself and for generations of Canada’s most successful theatre creators. In this book, John explains each of these “Two Ways” in detail, explaining why your characters won’t invent your story for you, how to construct a plot using cause-and-effect, and how to refine your dialogue for the actors by chewing on it yourself first. He also guides the reader through other aspects of the profession–from current issues around creativity, originality and cultural appropriation, to nuts-and-bolts concerns like script submissions, workshops, readings, rehearsals and opening nights. Informed by over 50 years of professional experience as an award-winning Canadian playwright, teacher and critic, and delivered with John’s breezy, informal style and sense of humour, Two Ways About It will give the beginner a dependable way into the profession and offer the more experienced playwright new and refreshing approaches to the art form.

  • Warrior Life

    Warrior Life

    $25.00

    In a moment where unlawful pipelines are built on Indigenous territories, the RCMP make illegal arrests of land defenders on unceded lands, and anti-Indigenous racism permeates on social media; the government lie that is reconciliation is exposed. Renowned lawyer, author, speaker and activist, Pamela Palmater returns to wade through media headlines and government propaganda and get to heart of key issues lost in the noise.

    Warrior Life: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence is the second collection of writings by Palmater. In keeping with her previous works, numerous op-eds, media commentaries, YouTube channel videos and podcasts, Palmater’s work is fiercely anti-colonial, anti-racist, and more crucial than ever before.

    Palmater addresses a range of Indigenous issues — empty political promises, ongoing racism, sexualized genocide, government lawlessness, and the lie that is reconciliation — and makes the complex political and legal implications accessible to the public.

    From one of the most important, inspiring and fearless voices in Indigenous rights, decolonization, Canadian politics, social justice, earth justice and beyond, Warrior Life is an unflinching critique of the colonial project that is Canada and a rallying cry for Indigenous peoples and allies alike to forge a path toward a decolonial future through resistance and resurgence.

  • We, Jane

    We, Jane

    $23.00

    Shortlisted for the 2022 Amazon Canada First Novel Award
    Longlisted for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize
    Shortlisted for the 2021 BMO Winterset Award
    Shortlisted for the 2021 Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction
    Shortlisted for the 2021 Concordia University First Book Prize
    Shortlisted for the 2022 ReLit Award for Fiction

    A remarkable debut about intergenerational female relationships and resistance found in the unlikeliest of places, We, Jane explores the precarity of rural existence and the essential nature of abortion.

    Searching for meaning in her Montreal life, Marthe begins an intense friendship with an older woman, also from Newfoundland, who tells her a story about purpose, about a duty to fulfill. It’s back home, and it goes by the name of Jane.

    Marthe travels back to a small community on the island with the older woman to continue the work of an underground movement in 60s Chicago: abortion services performed by women, always referred to as Jane. She commits to learning how to continue this legacy and protect such essential knowledge. But the nobility of her task and the reality of small-town life compete, and personal fractures within their group begin to grow.

    We, Jane probes the importance of care work by women for women, underscores the complexity of relationships in close circles, and beautifully captures the inevitable heartache of understanding home.

  • We, the Others

    We, the Others

    $22.95

    Ungrateful, opportunistic, moochers, dangerous, incompatible with our values and our way of life…

    Every immigrant demographic has heard these descriptors at some point in their migration history. We, the Others explores the xenophobia, ethno-nationalism, and the fear of the “other” that is at the root of the belief that immigration is a polluting force.
    Gleaned from the author’s personal family history as the second-generation daughter of Greek immigrants, and from her research as a journalist and columnist covering identity politics and social issues in Quebec and Canada for the past 20 years, We, the Others courageously tackles this country’s history and practices, divisive legislation like Bill 21, and various nationalist movements that have influenced our immigration policies. It is also a poignant look at inter-generational struggles, conflicting loyalties and heartfelt questions of belonging.

  • What Is Written on the Tongue

    What Is Written on the Tongue

    $24.95

    For readers of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a transportive historical novel about finding morality in the throes of war and colonizationReleased from Nazi forced labor as World War II ends, 20-year-old Sam is quickly drafted and sent to the island of Java to help regain control of the colony. But the Indonesian independence movement is far ahead of the Dutch, and Sam is thrown into a guerilla war, his loyalties challenged when his squad commits atrocities reminiscent of those he suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Sam falls in love with both Sari and the beautiful island she calls home, but as he loses friends to sniper fire and jungle malady, he also loses sight of what he wants most — to be a good man.

  • Whitemud Walking

    Whitemud Walking

    $23.95

    WINNER OF THE 2020/2021 ALCUIN SOCIETY BOOK DESIGN AWARD FOR POETRY

    WINNER OF THE ROBERT KROETSCH CITY OF EDMONTON BOOK PRIZE

    WINNER OF THE 2023 STEPHAN G. STEPHANSSON AWARD FOR POETRY

    WINNER OF THE GERALD LAMPERT MEMORIAL AWARD

    WINNER OF THE INDIGENOUS VOICES AWARD FOR PUBLISHED POETRY IN ENGLISH

    SHORTLISTED FOR THE DAYNE OGILVIE PRIZE FOR LGBTQ2S+ EMERGING WRITERS

    LONGLISTED FOR THE RAYMOND SOUSTER AWARD

    An Indigenous resistance historiography, poetry that interrogates the colonial violence of the archive

    Whitemud Walking is about the land Matthew Weigel was born on and the institutions that occupy that land. It is about the interrelatedness of his own story with that of the colonial history of Canada, which considers the numbered treaties of the North-West to be historical and completed events. But they are eternal agreements that entail complex reciprocity and obligations. The state and archival institutions work together to sequester documents and knowledge in ways that resonate violently in people’s lives, including the dispossession and extinguishment of Indigenous title to land.

    Using photos, documents, and recordings that are about or involve his ancestors, but are kept in archives, Weigel examines the consequences of this erasure and sequestration. Memories cling to documents and sometimes this palimpsest can be read, other times the margins must be centered to gain a fuller picture. Whitemud Walking is a genre-bending work of visual and lyric poetry, non-fiction prose, photography, and digital art and design.

  • Who Has Seen the Wind

    Who Has Seen the Wind

    $44.95

    PubWest 2023 Book Design Awards Gold Medal Winner

    A gorgeous new illustrated edition to commemorate the 75th anniversary of this seminal Canadian classic.

    Since its publication in 1947, Who Has Seen the Wind — a classic tale about a boy growing up on the Saskatchewan prairie — has been read and loved by millions. With his unique blend of poetry and humour, W.O. Mitchell perfectly captures childhood and small-town life. Featuring an unforgettable cast of characters — young Brian O’Connal and his family, including his fiery-tongued Uncle Sean and his formidable Scotch grandmother, and the colourful inhabitants of their prairie community — it is not only the story of one boy, but an ageless story of growing up and the search for meaning.

    This new edition commemorates the 75th anniversary of the book’s publication, bringing together the complete and unabridged version of the text with 8 full-colour paintings and 32 black-and-white illustrations by renowned artist William Kurelek. It also includes a new foreword from W.O. Mitchell’s friend, the acclaimed novelist Frances Itani, as well as new essays about the book’s storied history and legacy. Admirers of W.O. Mitchell will cherish this edition, and a new generation of readers will discover this brilliant, timeless novel for the first time.

  • William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, A Radical Retelling

    William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, A Radical Retelling

    $18.95

    The title of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It holds a double meaning that teasingly suggests the play can please all tastes. But is that possible? With his subversive updating of the Bard’s classic, Indigenous creator and cultural provocateur Cliff Cardinal seeks to find out. The show exults in bawdy humour, difficult subject matter, and raw emotion; Cardinal is not one to hold back when it comes to challenging delicate sensibilities.

  • Wonder World

    Wonder World

    $21.95

    WINNER, Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award

    Wonder World is a look at a part of the country not often written about (Casey Plett’s work and Miriam Toews’ come to mind – these places do exist in literature, just not widely) and a wonderful contribution to the queer literary landscape. I’ll be on the lookout for what Byggdin writes next.” – Tara-Michelle Ziniuk, ROOM Magazine

    Twenty-seven-year-old Isaac Funk is broke, drifting, and questioning his lonely existence on the East Coast. Having left his conservative hometown of Newfield, Manitoba full of piss and vinegar, Isaac’s dreams of studying music and embracing queer culture in Halifax have gradually fizzled out. When his grandfather dies and leaves him a substantial inheritance, Isaac is pulled back to the Prairies for the first time in ten years.

    Finding his father Abe just as enigmatic and unreachable as always and his extended family more fragmented than ever, Isaac begins to wonder if there will ever be a place for him in Newfield.

    Is the prodigal son home for good, or is it time to cut and run once more?

  • Yaga

    Yaga

    $18.95

    She’s more than just a wicked old witch. Baba Yaga is a legend, usually known as that elderly woman who lives alone in the woods and grinds the bones of the wicked. But what if she was actually a sexy, smart, modern woman operating off of morally ambiguous motives? 

    A detective finds himself in a small, isolated town asking, what does the disappearance of the young heir to a yogurt empire have to do with some random lore about an old witch? Matched by an apprehensive local sheriff, a university professor with a taste for younger men, and a whole cast of curious characters, the Slavic myth of Baba Yaga twists into a new labyrinth of secret lives, ancient magic, and multiple suspects. 

    This genre-bending comedic fairy tale meets thrilling whodunit gives voice to an antihero of epic proportions while interrogating how her story has historically been told by men. From now on, you’ll remember the name Baba Yaga for the right reasons.

  • Your Body Was Made for This

    Your Body Was Made for This

    $21.95

    Eating too much, eating not enough, having sex, not having sex, aging parents, grief, drugs, childhood trauma, and the last call of ovaries – a woman’s body at mid-life can get messy.

    Debbie Bateman’s stories take a clear-eyed look at the largely unexplored private world of a pivotal stage in virtually every woman’s life. These stories are linked not only by the characters, but also by the visceral themes of food, sex, exercise, beauty, and aging. The secret clenching of a fist, the unwinding of a silk scarf, the proud refusal to have breast reconstruction, the women in these stories want full authority over their bodies and their lives.