Books

On his fifteenth birthday, in the summer of 1880, future science-fiction writer M.P. Shiel sailed with his father and the local bishop from their home in the Caribbean out to the nearby island of Redonda—where, with pomp and circumstance, he was declared the island’s king. A few years later, when Shiel set sail for a new life in London, his father gave him some advice: Try not to be strange. It was almost as if the elder Shiel knew what was coming.

Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda tells, for the first time, the complete history of Redonda’s transformation from an uninhabited, guano-encrusted island into a fantastical and international kingdom of writers. With a cast of characters including forgotten sci-fi novelists, alcoholic poets, vegetarian publishers, Nobel Prize frontrunners, and the bartenders who kept them all lubricated while angling for the throne themselves, Michael Hingston details the friendships, feuds, and fantasies that fueled the creation of one of the oddest and most enduring micronations ever dreamt into being. Part literary history, part travelogue, part quest narrative, this cautionary tale about what happens when bibliomania escapes the shelves and stacks is as charming as it is peculiar—and blurs the line between reality and fantasy so thoroughly that it may never be entirely restored.

Praise for Try Not to Be Strange

“This combination literary history, travelogue and cautionary tale tells the history of the formerly uninhabited Caribbean island of Redonda and its development into a ‘micronation’ ruled by writers, beginning with the science fiction author M.P. Shiel in 1880.”
—New York Times

“That spirit, the tongue-in-cheek mock seriousness of the whole endeavour, and the playfulness of its participants, is a keen factor in Try Not to Be Strange. The book is a delightful reading experience, utterly unexpected and unlike anything you are likely to read this year.”
—Toronto Star

“A wonderfully entertaining book, an account of how its Canadian author grew fascinated with a literary jape, a kind of role-playing game or shared-world fantasy involving some of the most eccentric and some of the most famous writers of modern times.”
—Washington Post

“Highly recommend … The fact that it involved M.P. Shiel is just the beginning of the strangeness. Great read!”
—Patton Oswalt

“Hingston traces the story of one of the strangest kingdoms in the world … a fascinating account.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

“Try Not to be Strange is an enjoyable account of a bizarre not-quite-real place, with a rich cast of characters—not least Hingston himself, who amusingly tracks his own obsessiveness.”
—Complete Review

“Combining travelogue, memoir, and literary history, Hingston has crafted a fascinating tale full of eccentric characters. Editions of all sizes play a role in the drama, and bibliophiles will also relish the author’s auction experience.”
—Fine Books and Collections Magazine

“Try Not to Be Strange is a passionate and skillfully written exploration of an extraordinary world and those who search for such places to get to the heart of what stories really mean. Hingston’s thirst for deeper knowledge is palpable, and it illuminates what the kingdom might really stand for.”
—Quill & Quire

“Full of colorful personalities, exotic locales, and unexpected twists, this is a jaunty historical footnote.”
—Publishers Weekly

Praise for Michael Hingston

“[Hingston] does it all with a delicious sense of humour.”
—Quill & Quire (starred review)

“Wise and love-driven … full of observations, analysis, and well-researched history.”
—Edmonton Journal

“A fresh take on the campus novel, Michael Hingston’s debut is a droll, incisive dissection of the terrible, terribly exciting years known as post-adolescence.”
—Patrick deWitt, author of The Sisters Brothers

“This book captures the joy and excitement at first discovering Calvin and Hobbes, and the wistful sadness that it is no more.”
—Patton Oswalt

“The Dilettantes is a whip-smart and very funny literary portrait of the post-ironic generation. Don’t miss this.”
—Zoe Whittall, author of The Best Kind of People

“His insights are rich and concise, but he never commandeers the work, as is the habit with writing about pop culture. As a critic, Hingston uses light touches of salt to bring out the flavours already in the work … A fine companion to a comic about a kid without much interest in companionship.”
—Bookshelf News

From practical to playful, inspired recipes that reveal the hidden potential of plants

At the award-winning restaurant, The Acorn, plants are celebrated: explored, enhanced, coaxed with creativity, and dressed for a night of being the center of attention and the phenomenal focus of every plate. In their first cookbook, Shira Blustein and Brian Luptak—The Acorn’s owner and chef—share their truly unique recipes, highlighting the endless possibilities that come when cooking with the seasonal and wild-crafted ingredients gifted to us by nature. Defying categorization, with dishes that are anything but predictable, this cookbook will leave even the staunchest of meat eaters satisfied.
 
The recipe chapters are structured by season, with an Essentials chapter at the start of the book—full of pickles, vinegars, oils, and plant-based alternatives—and a Cocktails chapter at the back. All the recipes are broken into components, and range from the simple but sublime Spring Radishes with Ashed Spring Onion Almond Sauce, Fried Garlic Scapes or Stinging Nettle Soup, to the intriguing Fried Zucchini Blossoms with Fermented Zucchini Purée and Apricot Chili Sauce, Smoked Caramelized Parsnip and Potato Pâté, or Squash and Chanterelle Gnocchi. And the recipes focus on minimizing waste and maximizing the potential of each plant—as the stems of one recipe become the pickled star of another.
 
Encouraging us all to be adventurous with our vegetables, Acorn offers a year’s worth of seasonal recipes, infused with brilliant creativity. Visually compelling, and masterfully thought through, Acorn takes vegetarian cooking to the next level, and is a cookbook to read, admire, and inspire.

From the bestselling author of Rumi and the Red Handbag comes a new collection of essays about the intersection of poetry, painting, photography and beauty. Inspired by the words of Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein and the art of Irving Penn and Georgia O'Keeffe, Lemay welcomes you into her home, her art and her life as a poet and photographer of the every day. Lemay shares visits to the museum with her daughter, the beauty in an average workday at the library, and encourages the budding writer. Take a long walk through the fragrance, the colours, the beauty and the simplicity Lemay brings to this pocket-sized collection of essays punctuated by moments of flowering. Make an appointment with flowers, and an appointment with life.

A delightfully modern look at what happens for a young woman when tradition, dating, and independence collide, from acclaimed author Sonya Lalli.

Adulting shouldn't be this hard. Especially in your thirties. Having been pressured by her tight-knit community to get married at a young age to her first serious boyfriend, Anu Desai is now on her own again and feels like she is starting from the beginning. 

But Anu doesn't have time to start over. Telling her parents that she was separating from her husband was the hardest thing she's ever done—and she's still dealing with the fallout. She has her young daughter to support and when she invests all of her savings into running her own yoga studio, the feelings of irresponsibility send Anu reeling. She'll be forced to look inside herself to learn what she truly wants.

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Sonya Lalli is a romance and women’s fiction author of Punjabi and Bengali heritage. Her books have been featured in Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Washington Post, Glamour and more. She lives in Vancouver with her husband.…

A warm story of the bond between young and old that evokes the wild, windswept banks of Newfoundland—and the joys of a traditional way of life.

In a picture book as cozy as wool socks and as sweeping as a lighthouse beam, a little girl takes a ferry to an island to spend time with her Poppy. After fresh-baked bread for breakfast, the two tidy up, garden, and set out to explore together. They pass docks and green hills specked with puffins, counting their favorite things along the way: masts, animal tracks, silvery waves. At the end of each day, they snuggle on Poppy’s worn velvet armchair to read by lantern light. When it’s time to travel home, the little girl begins counting the days until she and Poppy will be together again. A patchwork of exquisitely patterned and textured art evokes a traditional quilt in this ode to coastal Canada and to the days spent with an attentive, caring older person.

Holly always assumed that getting superpowers would be the hard part of becoming a superhero.But when a transformer explodes overhead on her way home from work one day, she’s forced to reconsider—getting them was easy. After she’s released from the hospital, she discovers she can control electricity.While Holly is practicing her newfound ability in the backyard, her younger brother Jesse sees her and decides to use his training in martial arts to teach his sister how to rein in her power.It’s only a matter of time before they’re a superheroic crime-fighting duo—or so they want to believe. But it’s a lot harder to be a superhero than it seems.

Paperback - 209 pages

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Glow from the inside out with fabulous vegan recipes from the creator of the award-winning blog  Oh She Glows

A self-trained chef and food photographer, Angela Liddon has spent years perfecting the art of plant-based cooking, creating inventive and delicious recipes that have brought her devoted fans from all over the world. After struggling for a decade with an eating disorder, Angela vowed to change her diet - and her life - once and for all. She traded the low-calorie, processed food she'd been living on for whole, nutrient-packed vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, and more. The result? Her energy soared, she healed her relationship with food, and she got her glow back, both inside and out. Eager to share her realization that the food we put into our bodies has a huge impact on how we look and feel each day, Angela started a blog, Oh She Glows, which is now an internet sensation and one of the most popular vegan recipe blogs on the web.

This is Angela’s long-awaited debut cookbook, with a treasure trove of more than a hundred mouth-watering, wholesome recipes – from revamped classics that even meat-eaters will love, to fresh and inventive dishes – all packed with flavor. From rich and hearty entrees like the Crowd Pleasing Tex Mex Casserole and 15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta to decadent desserts such as Chilled Chocolate Espresso Torte with Hazelnut Crust and Angela’s famous Glo Bakery Glo Bars, there is something for everyone. The Oh She Glows Cookbook also includes recipes free of common food allergens – with more than ninety gluten-free recipes – and many recipes free of soy, nuts, sugar, and grains, too!

Whether you are a vegan, “vegan-curious,” or you simply want to eat delicious food that just happens to be healthy, this cookbook is a must-have for anyone who longs to eat well, feel great, and simply glow! 

Winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2017 - Best Blogger Book
Winner of the 2017 Taste Canada Awards - Health and Special Diet Cookbooks

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Angela Liddon’s eagerly awaited follow-up to the international bestseller The Oh She Glows Cookbook is packed with amazingly simple and delicious plant-based recipes that will keep you glowing from the inside out every day

Angela Liddon’s irresistible and foolproof recipes have become the gold standard for plant-based cooking. Her phenomenally popular blog and international bestseller, The Oh She Glows Cookbook, have amassed millions of fans eager for her latest collection of creative and accessible recipes. Now, in this highly anticipated new cookbook, Angela shares wildly delicious recipes that are perfect for busy lifestyles, promising to make plant-based eating convenient every day of the week—including holidays and special occasions! Filled with more than 100 family-friendly recipes everyone will love, like Oh Em Gee Veggie Burgers, Fusilli Lentil-Mushroom Bolognese, Apple Pie Overnight Oats, Mocha Empower Glo Bars, and the Ultimate Flourless Brownies, Oh She Glows Every Day also includes easy-to-make homemade staples; useful information on essential pantry ingredients; tips on making recipes kid-, allergy-, and freezer-friendly; and so much more.
 
A beautiful go-to cookbook from one of the most beloved cooking stars and food bloggers, Oh She Glows Every Day proves that it’s possible to cook simple, nourishing, and tasty plant-based meals—even on a busy schedule.

From our former Governor General, a series of fifty (of several thousand) carefully chosen letters he has written to people he has admired and befriended over his seventy-plus years, that sets out David Johnston's frank, informed, and novel thoughts about Canada.


     Touching on a wide range of topics ranging from learning, the law, kindness and courage, to the monarchy, Aboriginal education, justice, bilingualism, mental health and hockey, David Johnston has always used the letter writing form to tackle the passions, challenges, and goals of his incredibly accomplished and varied life. From his earliest years at Harvard, he has written several letters each day, starting with those to his large family, and broadening out to an ever-widening circle of friends that includes ministers and monarchs, educators and entrepreneurs, and many extraordinary Canadians who have deepened his perspective and touched his heart. The letters included in this beautiful volume are all about Canada -- a project to help him understand and share his views on this great country, past, present and future. 
     Presented in three parts -- What Shapes Me, What Consumes Me, and What Comforts Me -- The Right Honourable reaches out to everyone from his grandchildren, Kevin Vickers, Clara Hughes, Chris Hadfield, the Aga Khan, Tina Fontaine, Mike Lazaridis, the teachers of our country, a grade five class in Winnipeg, an unknown Inuit boy he met at Rideau Hall, and many others. The perfect gift for graduates, this unique and lovely book should find its home in every Canadian's library.

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About David Johnston

One of Canada's most respected and beloved governors general, David Johnston is a graduate of Harvard, Cambridge, and Queen's universities. He served as dean of law at Western University, principal of McGill University, and president of the University of Waterloo. He is the author or co-author of twenty-five books, holds honorary doctorates from over twenty universities, and is a Companion of the Order of Canada (C.C.). Born in Sudbury, Ontario, he grew up in Sault Ste. Marie. He is married to Sharon Johnston and has five daughters and fourteen grandchildren.…