Dewey Divas and Dudes - Ann Ledden's Fall 2010 Picks

From the Dead – Mark Billingham - 978-1-55278-871-4 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – Fiction/Mystery 368 pages September

When Donna Langford receives a very recent photo of her ex-husband in the post, she gets the shock of her life. Because she’s just spent ten years in prison for organising his murder. When her daughter goes missing, Donna believes there can only be one man responsible and hires Anna Carpenter, a determined young private investigator, to find him. DI Tom Thorne worked on the Alan Langford case, so when Carpenter brings the photo to him, he refuses to believe that the man whose body was found in a burned-out car ten years before can still be alive.

The Coast Road – John Brady - 978-1-55278-805-9 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – Fiction/Mystery 350 pages September

Ireland’s ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland has imploded, but something stirs in the rubble, striking a chord with the public: Patrick Larkin, a homeless man, alcoholic and mentally ill, is beaten to death in a park. Larkin was a well-known fixture. His solitary walks along the coast road in a posh suburb near Dublin had earned him the nickname ‘The King of Ireland.’ Months pass and the case goes cold, but indignation rises: has the case been ‘kicked into the long grass?’ Inspector Minogue has leapt at the opportunity of a posting in ‘cold cases.’ Did Larkin die because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was he an unwitting witness to a drug deal?

The Villa Triste – Lucretia Grindle – 978-1-552780872-1 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – Fiction/Mystery 400 pages October

It is the Autumn of 1943. Italy signs the armistice that will take it out of the war, and slides into chaos. In Florence, two sisters, Isabella and Caterina Cammaccio, find themselves surrounded by terror and death. Thrust headlong into the unknown, Isabella and Caterina will test their wits and deepest beliefs as never before. As the winter grinds on, they will be forced to make the most important decisions of their lives. Their choices will reverberate for decades.

In the present day, Alessandro Pallioti, one of Florence's most senior policemen, would not normally oversee a murder investigation. He agrees only because the victim – an old man found dead in his apartment – was once a hero, one of the few surviving Partisans who took part in the city's liberation in 1944.

The Ancient Curse – Valerio Massimo Manfredi - 978-1-55278-873-8 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – Fiction/Thriller 256 pages October

In the middle of the night at the Museum of Volterra, young archeologist Fabrizio Castellani is immersed in his work - research into the famous Etruscan statue known as ‘the shade of twilight’. Completely engrossed, he is startled by the phone ringing. An icy female voice warns him to abandon his work at once. A series of gruesome killings shortly follow, throwing the people of Volterra into a panic. The victims - all involved in the descration of an unexplored tomb - have been torn to pieces by a beast of unimaginable size. Fabrizio is joined in his fearless investigation of the past by Francesca Dionisi, a vivacious young researcher, and foremost by Lieutenant Reggiani, a brilliant carabinieri officer assigned to the case.

With Her Boots On – Lisa Dow - 978-1-55278-874-5 - $16.95 B Trade Paperback – Fiction 416 pages October

Kit and Mel are back! This time it’s Mel’s turn for adventure.

Mel is getting ready to be a bridesmaid in her brother’s wedding and the bridesmaids’ dresses that “won’t be over-the-top” have actually raised the bar for over-the-top. Unfortunately, atrocious wedding attire and drunken bridal showers aren’t her only stressors—Mel’s career is turned upside down with the addition of a personal translator, a run in with a sea mammal and a television commercial producer with an affinity for very large dogs. Control freak Mel is on the edge before her neighbours produce a stash of lawn adornments that rival Disney’s “It’s A Small World” in both taste and number; now something really has to give…and quickly.

The Empress of Ice Cream – Anthony Capella - 978-1-55278-875-2 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – Fiction 352 pages October

1671, Carlo Dimerco is the only man in the world who knows how to make ice cream. As confectioner to Louis XIV, his talents are kept a closely guarded secret and his dishes served up for the King’s pleasure only. Carlo has fallen hopelessly in love with Louise de Keroualle, an impoverished lady-in-waiting to Henrietta d’Angleterre, sister of Charles II of England. When Henrietta dies suddenly, Louise and Carlo’s lives are changed irrevocably when they are sent to London.

It quickly becomes clear that Charles II wants Louise as his mistress. There ensues a famous rivalry between Louise and the king’s other mistress, the cockney actress Nell Gwyn. But Carlo is heartbroken. The only power he has left to wield is through his exquisite ice cream confections ...Where will his loyalties lie? Will he seek his revenge?

Are You Married to a Psychopath? – Nadine Bismuth; translation by Donald Winkler - 978-1-55278-869-1 - $18.95 B Trade Paperback – Fiction 225 pages September

Shortlisted for the 2009 Governor General’s Award for Fiction in French

We are everywhere. At the office, in the grocery store, on the elevator, on bridges, in cars, at the museum, in the subway, on our balconies, on our bikes, at the bank, at the airport. Whether we’re PhDs, autodidacts, brunettes, redheads, thin, fat, jewellers, bureaucrats, lawyers or radio hosts, it doesn’t matter. We are single. Fed up yet? We’ve been fed up for aeons.

Long Time No See – Dermot Healy - 978-1-55278-877-6 - $29.95 Hardcover – Fiction 320 pages November

Set in contemporary Ireland, LONG TIME NO SEE, accurately portrays a world with an unchanging landscape and timeless values but which finds itself beset by twenty-first century realities whether it’s SKY TV, financial crisis or an influx of charming Poles and Lithuanians. The novel unfolds through the eyes of ‘Mister Psyche’, a young man born in thrall to the responsibilities of the past, but alive to the magical choices of the brave new world of the present. Not unlike his forbearer in Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, Mister Psyche sets about his daily life with innocence and the kind of innate, passionate conviction that life will be OK with which only the young are blessed.

The Deserter – Paul Almond - 978-1-55278-901-8 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – Fiction – 356 pages October

Absorbing, touching and full of adventure, THE DESERTER is Book One of the Alford saga, a series chronicling two hundred years of Canadian history, as seen through the eyes of a settler’s family.

Fortune’s Second Wink – J & G Dryansky - 978-1-55278-878-3 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – Fiction 344 pages October

Once Fatima Monsour was the unluckiest of women, poor, childless and abandoned by her husband, in her tiny village on Djerba. Her sister’s accidental death in Paris changed her life, when she immigrated to take her place as the maid to a cantankerous, rich countess. Her enduring affection for the late countess drives her on an urgent mission to save the countess’ irascible and endangered daughter from perdition.

The Story of Danny Dunn – Bryce Courtenay - 978-1-55278-879-0 - $34.95 Hardcover – Fiction – 500 pages November

In the aftermath of the Great Depression few opportunities existed for working-class boys, but at just eighteen Danny Dunn has a good deal going for him: brains, looks, sporting ability - and an easy charm. His parents run The Hero, a favourite neighbourhood pub, and Danny is a local hero. Luck changes for Danny when he signs up to go to war. Set against a backdrop of Australian pubs and politics, THE STORY OF DANNY DUNN is an Australian family saga spanning three generations. It is a compelling tale of love, ambition and the destructive power of obsession, at a time of great change in Australia’s history.

The Four Walls of My Freedom – Donna Thomson - 978-1-55278-890-5 - $29.95 Hardcover – Memoir – 256 pages September

What could an Indian Nobel prize winning economist and a Canadian mother of a young man with severe disabilities have in common? Donna Thomson’s own experience with adversity takes on new meaning when viewed through the lens of Amartya Sen and other philosophers’ roadmaps of how to realize a good life against all odds. This lens includes not only people with disability, but also the enormous generation of post-WWII Baby Boomers who are beginning to sense the health care crisis that is looming as they deal with their own aging and increasingly infirm parents.

Donna Thomson’s brilliant family memoir provides a strong, original message that touches on the lives of anyone caring for the needs of another.

Breakfast with Cora - Cora Tsouflidou - 978-1-55278-892-9 - $29.95 Hardcover – Memoir/Business – 336 pages September

BREAKFAST WITH CORA tells the story of Cora Tsouflidou, the founder of the hugely popular Chez Cora restaurant chain. From her childhood on the Gaspe Peninsula, to her failed marriage, to the opening of her first restaurant, to the creation of the Chez Cora Foundation, Cora shares with us her experiences as a woman, a mother and an entrepreneur.

Affinity Beyond Branding – Martin Goldfarb, Howard Aster - 978-1-55278-891-2 - $29.95 Hardcover – Business – 200 pages September

Brands come and go and try often to re-create themselves. Good brands attach themselves and propagate values that are enduring. They can outlast the many economic cycles that are part of social transformation. How does a product tap into the enduring features of a culture so that people want to hear the story again and again, go back to the product year after year, and are even eager to re-tell that story to others?

Affinity is the result of an effective branding process and the result of effective story telling.

No Sorrow to Die – Gillian Galbraith - 978 1 84697 164 8 - $29.95 Hardcover – Fiction/Mystery – 240 pages June

As Heather Brodie kisses her lover goodnight, back at home her disabled husband lies dead, his throat cut from ear to ear. Who wanted Gavin Brodie dead? Many people, including Gavin Brodie. Crushed by an incurable illness, he pleaded to be allowed to die. Detective Sergeant Alice Rice is brought in to investigate, then another terminally ill man is found murdered. Is there a serial killer out to get rid of the sick and infirm?

The fourth in the Alice Rice series, raw passion and fierce arguments about the value of life swirl around the central investigation.

Kane’s Ladder – Carlos Alba - 978 1 84697 099 3 - $16.95 Trade Paperback – Fiction – 272 pages August

Ten-year-old Steve Duff longs to be poor and neglected like his friend Wally, whose parents are incapable drunks. Frustratingly for Steve, he’s saddled with a conventional, stable and middle-class family. Then, over the course of a year, his father has a fling with a barmaid and leaves home, his mother’s response is to start a psychology degree, his sister is arrested for demanding money with threats and his brother gets a girl pregnant. As if the normal indignities of growing up weren’t bad enough . . .

The Book of Lost Books An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You’ll Never Read – Stuart Kelly – 978 1 84697 123 5 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – History/Belles Lettre – 416 pages September

The sequel to The Odyssey? Sylvia Plath’s second novel? Stuart Kelly provides a wry and erudite account of books destroyed, misplaced, never finished, or never even begun – from ancient Greek and Arabic masters through Shakespeare, Dante and Hemingway right up to the present day. Described by the New York Times as ‘an absolute joy . . . a work of great passion, insight and scholarship’, this book is a must for all book lovers.

True North Travels in Arctic Europe - Gavin Francis - 978 1 84697 130 3 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – Travel – 304 pages, 16 pages colour photos September

The stark, vast beauty of the remote Arctic Europe landscape has been a focus of human exploration for thousands of years. In this striking blend of travel writing, history and mythology, Gavin Francis offers a unique portrait of the northern fringes of Europe. Following in the footsteps of the region’s early pioneers, Francis observes how the region has adapted to the twenty first century, giving an insight into the lives of people he encounters along the way. As with all the best travel writing, True North is an engaging, compassionate tale of self-discovery, blending historical and contemporary narratives.

On the Crofter’s Trail – David Craig - 978 1 84158 801 8 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – History/Travel – 384 pages, 8 pages photos August

Many of the people of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland were forced from their homes by landowners in the Clearances. Some fled to Nova Scotia and beyond. David Craig sets out to discover how many of their stories survive in the memories of their descendants. He travels through 21 islands in Scotland and Canada, many thousands of miles of moor and glen, and presents the words of men and women of both countries as they recount the suffering of their forbears.

Children of the Black House – Calum Ferguson - 978 1 84158 268 9 - $29.95 Trade Paperback – History – 320 pages, b & w photos throughout – August

Many Scots from The Isle of Lewis emigrated to Cape Breton, Canada on the ship Metagame.

Children of the Black House is a fascinating glimpse into life on the Hebridean island of Lewis from the closing years of the nineteenth century up to the 1950s. Calum Ferguson employs an unusual narrative technique, drawing on his mother Màiread’s reminiscences, and presenting her experiences in the first person. This is a fascinating account of a culture in transition.

A Geography of Secrets – Frederick Reuss – 978 1 60953 000 6 - $29.95 Hardcover – Fiction – 280 pages September

With a voice like John le Carré’s and the international sensibility of Graham Green, Frederick Reuss examines the unavoidably covert nature of lives that make their circles through Washington, DC. A Geography of Secrets is a novel of the time from an acclaimed author who knows the lay of the land.

Stranger Here Below – Joyce Hinnefeld – 978 1 60953 004 4 - $28.95 Hardcover – Fiction – 300 pages October

This is a novel about three generations of women and the love that makes families where none can be expected. This rich story about the travails of women in the struggle to stay connected to one another across every boundary during one of the most difficult eras of the American experience—1908-1968.

Safe from the Sea – Peter Geye – 978 1 60953 008 2 - $28.95 Hardcover – Fiction – 256 pages October

Safe from the Sea tells the story of Olaf and Noah Torr, a father and son whose long estrangement began after Olaf survived a shipwreck on Lake Superior. More than thirty years after the wreck, Olaf believes he is dying of cancer and asks his son to come home to his isolated cabin on the lake in order to help him die. Over the course of two weeks in November, against the backdrop of the dramatic landscape and weather, the men reconsider each other’s lives, finally summoning the courage to confess, understand and forgive.

Panopticon – David Bajo – 978 1 60953 002 0 - $29.95 Hardcover – Fiction – 345 pages October

As the California borderland newspaper where they work prepares to close, three reporters are oddly given assignments to return to stories they’ve covered before—each one surprisingly personal. Klinsman, Rita, and their colleague, Oscar Medem understand that they are supposed to uncover something. They just don’t know what. Panopticon is a novel of dreamlike appearances and almost supernatural memories, a world of hidden watchers that evokes the dark recognition of just how little we can protect even our most private moments.

In a Springtime Instant – The Selected Poems of Milton Acorn – edited by James Deahl – 978-0-88962-921-9 - $24.95 Trade Paperback – Poetry – 250 pages October

Milton Acorn remains one of the most important Canadian poets of the 20^th century. This new volume of poems solidifies Acorn’s reputation and confirms his place in Canadian literature. In a Springtime Instant the reader will discover and appreciate all the diversity, passion, variety and contradictions that swept through Acorn’s life and his poetry. This volume has been masterfully arranged and edited by James Deahl, Acorn’s longtime friend, and an accomplished poet and essayist in his own right.

The Reich’s Orchestra 1933-1945 – Misha Aster – 978-0-88962-913-4 - $29.95 Hardcover September

There has never been a book written on the subject of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Third Reich, in any language. The historiography is scant, and strewn with rumours and misinformation. This book represents the first comprehensive study of the relationship between Hitler’s regime and its musical crown jewel. The transformations of the Berlin Philharmonic between 1933 and 1945 remain the models for the orchestra’s organisation to the present day.

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