While searching for the origins of Canada’s most famous fried dish, journalist Justin Giovannetti Lamothe finds a reflection not only of the country’s intricate history, but also of his own neglected cultural roots. The recipe is deceptively simple—fried potatoes, cheese curds, gravy—but the story behind it is as rich and complex as Canada itself. Poutine […]
Read more »
A brilliant, seat-of-your-pants hostage-taking and daring SAS rescue mission of the Iran Embassy in London in 1980, this is Ben Macintyre at the very height of his story-telling powers. On April 30, 1980, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian embassy on Prince’s Gate, overlooking Hyde Park in London. There, they took 26 hostages, […]
A queer Syrian refugee reckons with a life spent out of place. “Writing this memoir is a betrayal.” So begins this electrifying personal account from Danny Ramadan, a celebrated novelist who has long enjoyed the shield his fiction provides. Now, to tell the story of his life, he must revisit dark corners of his past […]
Bob McDonald, host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, offers a personal and inspiring memoir of life-changing events in his early years through five decades in science journalism. Revered science reporter and radio host Bob McDonald has devoted his career to turning our attention away from everyday perspectives and outward to the vast, intricate wonders of […]
Reading life writing that runs from Tracey Emin, Faith Ringgold and Judy Chicago to Marie Bashkirtseff, Benvenuto Cellini and beyond, Artists and Their Autobiographies from Today to the Renaissance and Back investigates the intriguing doubled truths of artists’ autobiographies: truth in life and truth in art; authorial truth/s and the truth of their art as […]
Growing up, K.J. Aiello was fascinated by magical stories of dragons, wizards, and fantasy, where monsters were not what they seemed and anything was possible. These books and films were both a balm and an escape, a safe space where Aiello’s struggle with mental illness transformed from a burden into a strength that could win […]
A diasporic collection of essays on music, memory, and motion. In this powerful and deeply personal collection, Gloria Blizzard uses traditional narrative essays, hybrid structures, and the tools of poetry to negotiate the complexities of culture, geography, and language in an international diasporic quest. These essays of wayfinding accompany anyone exploring issues of belonging — […]
Selected by editor Marcello Di Cintio, the 2024 edition of Best Canadian Essays showcases the best Canadian nonfiction writing published in 2022. Featuring: Lyndsie Bourgon • Nicole Boyce • Robert Colman • Daniel Allen Cox • Acadia Currah • Sadiqa de Meijer • Gabrielle Drolet • Hamed Esmaeilion • Kate Gies • David Huebert • […]
This passionate book describes the author’s struggles as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman, who was born and raised in Tunisia, where she attended university before coming to Quebec, Canada as an immigrant. Mazigh describes her struggles against Islamophobia as it applies to women, especially those wearing hijab, who consistently get stereotyped as silent and compliant women […]
How to build a transportation system to provide mobility for all Road to Nowhere exposes the flaws in Silicon Valley’s vision of the future: ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft to take us anywhere; electric cars to make them ‘green’; and automation to ensure transport is cheap and ubiquitous. Such promises are implausible and potentially […]
Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French cooking The hugely anticipated follow up to Heat–Bill Buford’s hilariously self-deprecating, highly obsessive adventures in the world of French haute cuisine. In Dirt, Bill Buford–author of the best-selling, now-classic, Heat–moves his attention from Italian cuisine to the food of France. […]
Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany A sharp, funny, informative and deliciously captivating book about writer, Bill Buford’s year-in-training as a cook at Mario Batali’s famous New York restaurant, Babbo, his apprenticeship to a Tuscan butcher, and his quest to make the perfect […]
Five oceans cover approximately seventy per cent of the earth, yet we know little of what lies beneath them. Now, the race is on to completely map the oceans’ floor. Scientists, investors, militaries, and private explorers are competing in this epic venture to obtain an accurate reading of this vast terrain and understand its contours […]
One of the most important Ukrainian voices throughout the Russian invasion, the author of Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees collects his searing dispatches from the heart of Kyiv. This journal of the invasion, a collection of Andrey Kurkov’s writings and broadcasts from Kyiv, is a remarkable record of a brilliant writer at the forefront of a 21st-century […]
Making spaces and finding places for queerness. Every day, people face discrimination because of their sexuality and gender identity. The people between these pages have stood up for the queer community, whether on their own behalf or in support of people they love. Some made a difference by confronting injustice; others dared to be fully […]
Performing Female Blackness examines race, gender, and nation in Black life using critical race, feminist and performance studies methodologies. This book examines what private and public performances of female blackness reveal about race, gender, and nation and considers how the land widely known as Canada shapes these performances. By exploring Black expressive culture in familial, […]
These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially stressed and emotionally overwhelmed. The status quo isn’t working for anyone, even those who appear to have it all. What is going on? In this urgent cultural diagnosis, author and activist Astra Taylor exposes how seemingly disparate crises—rising inequality and declining mental health, the ecological emergency, and […]
An essential introduction and guide to navigating the next Internet revolution—everything from the metaverse and NFTs to DAOs, decentralized finance, and self-sovereign identity—from the co-author of the international bestseller Blockchain Revolution. The Web, and with it the Internet, are entering a new age. We’ve moved from the “Read-only Web,” which had little functionality for interacting with […]
The twelfth book in the bestselling series of hauntingly true Canadian stories — more chilling than ever! In this terrifying collection of haunted stories, author Joel A. Sutherland has put together even more frightening true ghost stories from all across our spooky land, including:A black cat haunts a log cabin in Breckenridge, Quebec. Disembodied sobs […]
The Correspondence of Victoria Ocampo, Count Keyserling and C. G. Jungcentres on two pivotal meetings: Victoria Ocampo and Hermann von Keyserling’s in 1929, and Ocampo and Carl Gustav Jung’s in 1934. The first section of the book chronicles these encounters, which proved to be key moments in the lives of the players and had repercussions […]
The international bestseller from award-winning writer Mark Schatzker that reveals how our dysfunctional relationship with food began—and how science is leading us back to healthier living and eating. For the last fifty years, we have been fighting a losing war on food. We have cut fat, reduced carbs, eliminated sugar, and attempted every conceivable diet […]
A diary of a woman longing for community in a crowded urban area during the pandemic times, when casual intimacies are forbidden. The novelist Rebecca Rosenblum lives in St James Town, Toronto — the most densely populated square kilometre in all of Canada. When the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns arrive, she’s cut off from […]
From beloved elements of children’s playgrounds to leather tools of bondage, a sweeping study of the cultural significance of swings. In Arc of Feeling Javier Moscoso investigates the pleasure of oscillation and explores the surprising history of the swing through its meanings and metaphors, noting echoes and coincidences in remote times and places: from the witch’s broom […]
For readers of Crying in H Mart and Wintering, an unforgettable memoir about a family secret revealed by a DNA test, the lessons learned in its aftermath, and the indelible power of love. Three months after Kyo Maclear’s father dies in December 2018, she gets the results of a DNA test showing that she and the father who raised […]
