Dewey Divas and Dudes - Fall 2011 Picks

McArthur & Company

Infrared – Nancy Huston – 9781770870291 – $29.95 Hardcover – Fiction – September – 272 pgs.

Rena, a twice-married photographer who specializes in infrared techniques, travels to Tuscany with her father and his second wife. As the trip progresses, in an internal dialogue with her mental double, Rena submits her past to exposure. Using dark room techniques she reevaluates her explosive sexual coming of age, her relationships with her father and various lovers.

The Grey Lady – Nadine Doolittle – 9781770870611 – $24.95 Trade paperback – Fiction/Mystery – September – 350 pgs.

In 1974, twenty-two year old Hester Warnock’s love affair with Malcolm Driver on a farm-turned-commune led to the death of a young pregnant girl named Beth Sherry. Thirty-five years later, now a successful magazine publisher, Hester is invited back to the scene of the crime to participate in a documentary of Malcolm’s life and times. The next morning, in the middle of a fierce rainstorm, she finds her ex-lover hanging from a tree.

A Curious Dream: Collected Works – Kate Pullinger – 9781770870321 – $24.95 Paperback w/ flaps – Fiction – September – 480 pgs.

A brilliant volume that gathers together the very best of Kate Pullinger’s short stories from her two previous collections Tiny Lies and My Life as a Girl in a Men’s Prison PLUS six new short stories .

Shooting Angels – Christopher Hope – 9781552789711 – $24.95 Trade paperback – Fiction – September – 272 pgs.

At their Johannesburg school, two small boys are the kings of their small and perfect world. It is the 1950s and life is full of playground games and weekend scrapes. But this cosy life of certainty disintegrates as the new apartheid regime begins to squeeze their Catholic community. It is out of this savage oppression that the two boys will grow into men: one a terrorist and the other an impresario collaborating with the same government that shattered both of their young lives…

Flying with Amelia – Anne Degrace – 9781552789797 – $29.95 Hardcover – Fiction – September – 320 pgs.

From 1901 to 1999, from the heady days of the FLQ crisis to the dawning evidence of climate change in Canada’s north, Flying with Amelia weaves a collective identity, taking us on a journey from the dawn of a century to its last moments.

The Golden Hour – William Nicholson – 9781770870451 – $24.95 Trade paperback – Fiction – October – 368 pgs.

Now in their early thirties, Maggie and Andrew have been together for eighteen months. It’s a good relationship, and Andrew has recently made the decision to take a new job . This has implications. As the first chapter begins, Andrew says to Maggie, ‘I’ve been thinking ... ’. She knows at once that he’s about to suggest they move in together. In that instant she realises, for the first time, that fond though she is of Andrew she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life with him. On the other hand, if she parts with him now, what if she never meets someone as easy to be with?

The First Night – Marc Levy – 9781552789841 – $24.95 Trade paperback – Fiction – October – 400 pgs.

“The legend goes that when you are in your mother’s womb, you know all about the mystery of creation, the origins of the world until the end of time. When you are born, a messenger flies over your cradle and puts a finger on your lips so that the secret of life will never escape. The finger erases your memory forever and leaves a mark, which all of us have above our upper lip. All of us, except me. The day I was born, the messenger forgot to come and see me, and I remember everything.”

The Lost Daughter – Lucretia Grindle – 9781552789759 - $24.95 Trade paperback – Fiction/Mystery – September – 400 pgs.

‘Her past.’ Pallioti tapped the files. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is how you’ll find her.’

In Florence, a young American student goes missing. At first neither Alessandro Pallioti, one of the city’s most senior policemen, nor Enzo Saenz, his deputy, are too concerned. But soon the men are horrified to discover that the older man Kristen has been spending time with is Antonio Tomaselli, a member of the notorious Red Brigades. Then, before the police can get a handle on the case, Kristen’s step-mother, Anna, also vanishes.

The Pioneer – Paul Almond – 9781770871236 – $19.95 Trade paperback – Fiction – October – 200 pgs.

The Alford Saga continues with The Deserter now battling old age and ferocious winters, but even more crippling — the departure of his son and only heir, Young Jim, who sets out on snowshoes for Montreal, seven hundred miles away. Paralyzed by a blizzard, Jim is rescued by two sisters. Revived, he reaches Quebec City, attempts the crossing of a swift ice-filled river and nearly drowns. Arriving at last in Montreal, starvation drives Jim into a backbreaking job on the Victoria Bridge, the first to cross the mighty St Lawrence River. He finds lodgings with an Irish widow i and falls in love. But deceived in this romance, he rejects the bitter realities of urban life and returns to the Old Homestead and its community of pioneers.

The Hanging Shed – Gordon Ferris – 9781770870741 – $24.95 Trade paperback – Fiction/Mystery - September – 320 pgs.

Glasgow, 1946. The last time Douglas Brodie came home it was 1942 and he was a dashing young warrior in a kilt. Now, the war is over but victory’s wine has soured and Brodie’s back in Scotland to try and save childhood friend Hugh Donovan from the gallows.

The Sky’s Dark Labyrinth – Stuart Clark – $24.95 Trade paperback – Fiction - October – 268 pgs.

At the dawn of the seventeenth century everyone believed that the sun revolved around the earth. Yet some men knew that the heavens did not move as they should. And some men began to suspect that this heresy was in fact the truth. As Europe convulsed in conflict between Catholic and Protestant, these

men prepared to die for that truth. This is the story of Kepler and Galileo, two men whose struggle with themselves, with the evidence and with the forces of reaction changed not simply themselves but our world.

The Christmas Angel – Marcia Willett – 9781552789971 – $24.95 Trade paperback – Fiction – November – 368 pgs.

Twelfth night - time to put away the Christmas angel. A new year dawns, and everything seems to be falling into place for Dossie. Her son Clem and his adorable five-year-old son Jakey have moved to Cornwall to be closer to her. She runs her own successful catering business. All she needs now is some better luck in her romantic life.

Fortune Cookie – Bryce Courtenay – 9781552789889 – $34.95 Hardcover – Fiction – October – 592 pgs.

Simon Koo is an ambitious Australian-born Chinese who goes to Singapore in the mid-sixties to work for Samuel Oswald Wing, an advertising agency. But the Wing brothers, who run the agency, are not what they seem. There is soon trouble when Simon falls in love with the forbidden Mercy B. Lord, the illegitimate daughter of a Japanese officer and a Chinese mother who abandoned her on the doorstep of a Catholic orphanage. With no family or connections, this beautiful young woman is powerless to resist the evil influence of Beatrice Fong, a manipulative businesswoman, who, in league with the Wing brothers, lures her into the dark and dangerous international trade in sex workers and heroin trafficking involving the American CIA. Simon, an unlikely hero, must save her at any cost.

Paris Revealed: The Secret Life of a City – Stephen Clarke – 9781552789834 –$24.95 Trade paperback – Travel/History – October – 320 pgs.

Where to see fantastic art away from all the crowds? Why Parisian men feel compelled to pee in the street? How to choose a hotel room where you might actually get a good night’s sleep? Which is the most romantic spot to say “je t’aime”? And the sexiest? What scares Parisians most about their own city? In this witty and authoritative book, Stephen Clarke goes behind the scenes to reveal everything Parisians know about their city -- but don’t want to tell you.

Long Night of the Tankers – Bercuson and Herwig – 9781770870949 – $34.95 Hardcover – History – November – 400 pgs.

Long Night of the Tankers is the story of the German effort to cut the Caribbean off from Britain, the United States and Canada and the desperate defence mounted by the Allies, along with a half dozen other Caribbean and South American nations. The loss of the oil threatened Britain’s ability to wage war; the loss of the tankers almost strangled the oil supply to America’s industrial north east. When even Churchill and Roosevelt began to worry about the vulnerable Caribbean, the US and its allies poured thousands of men, hundreds of aircraft and dozens of ships into the Caribbean region, organized an effective convoy system and rallied the Central and South American nations against the Germans.

Dante in Love – A.N. Wilson – 9781552789667 $39.95 Hardcover – Biography/History – November – 400 pgs -- 24 pgs colour illus.

In Dante in Love , A.N Wilson presents a glittering study of an artist and his world, arguing that without an understanding of medieval Florence, it is impossible to comprehend the meaning of Dante’s great poem. He explains how the Italian States were at that time locked into violent feuds, mirrored in the ferocious competition between the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. He explores Dante’s preoccupations with classical mythology, numerology and the great Christian philosophers which inform every line of the Comedy. Dante in Love also lays bare the enigma of the man who never wrote about the mother of his children, yet immortalized the mysterious Beatrice, whom he barely knew. With a biographer’s eye for detail and a novelist’s comprehension of the creative process, A.N Wilson paints a masterful portrait of Dante Alighieri and unlocks one of the seminal works of literature for a new generation of readers.

Birlinn Publishing

Empire of Sand – Walter Reid – 9781843410539 – $50.00 Hardcover – History –October – 432 pgs. – 16 pgs. photos

At the end of the First World War the modern Middle East was created by Britain and France, who carved up the old Ottoman possessions with scant regard for the wishes of those who lived there. With reference to a huge amount of primary and secondary sources, Walter Reid explores Britain's role in the creation of the modern Middle East and the rise of Zionism, from the early years of the twentieth century to 1948, when Britain handed over Palestine to UN control – a process from which has flowed much of the instability in the region and of the worldwide tensions that threaten the world today.

The Great Wood – Jim Crumley – 9781841589732 - $24.95 Trade paperback – Natural History – November – 240 pgs. – 32 pgs. photos

The Great Wood of Caledon - the historic native forest of Highland Scotland - has a reputation as potent and misleading as the wolves that ruled it. The popular image is of an impassable, sun-snuffing shroud, a Highlandswide jungle infested by wolf, lynx, bear, beaver, wild white cattle, wild boar, and wilder painted men. The book threads a path among relic strongholds of native woodland, beginning with a soliloquy by the Fortingall Yew, the one tree in Scotland that can say of the hey-day of the Great Wood 5,000 years ago: 'I was there.' The journey is enriched by vivid wildlife encounters, a passionate and poetic account that binds the slow dereliction of the past to an optimistic future.

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors – The Official Guide (Sixth Edition) – National Archives of Scotland – 978178027022 – $24.95 Trade paperback – Reference – October – 256 pgs.

This is a new edition of the bestselling guide to this increasingly popular pursuit. Scotland has the best-maintained records and facilities of any country in the world for undertaking family research, and now that the National Archives of Scotland are available online they can be consulted by anyone from whatever country. "Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors" is the National Archives' official guide and is written in an accessible style from the unique perspective of a custodian of the records. It details all the latest internet developments, including a chapter on family history on the web. It also points to more traditional resources, explaining step by step how to research records of births, marriages and wills.

Scotland: Mapping the Nation – Fleet, Withers, Wilkes – 9781841589695 –$50.00 Hardcover – History – October – 304 pgs. colour

This is the first book to take maps seriously as a form of history, from the earliest representations of Scotland by Ptolemy in the second century AD to the most recent form of Scotland's mapping and geographical representation in satellite imagery and SATNAV. Compiled by three experts who have spent their lives working with maps, Scotland: Mapping the Nation offers a fascinating and thought-provoking perspective on Scottish history which is beautifully illustrated with complete facsimiles and details of hundreds of the most significant manuscript and printed maps from the National Library of Scotland and other institutions.

Place-names of Scotland – Ian Taylor – 9781780270050 – $19.95 Trade paperback – Reference/History - August – 252 pgs.

Scotland is a land of many languages - Gaelic, Norse, Pictish, Brythonic, Anglo Saxon, Modern English and some from before recorded time. The result for the visitor is a confusing series of overlapping layers of place names, difficult to understand and often more difficult to pronounce. Here at last is a simple pocket guide to Scotland’s rich tapestry of names.

The Great Folk Discography Vol 2 - The New Legends – Martin Strong – 9781846971778 – $39.95 Trade paperback – Music/Reference – December – 672 pgs.

Martin Strong has earned his reputation as a music writer the hard way - by compiling massive, detailed tomes that brim with sharp, insightful observations. The Great Folk Discography trilogy is an essential purchase for all lovers of folk music; Volume 2 examines the new legends of folk music from the 1970s to date, taking in such diverse acts as Billy Bragg, Midlake, Fleet Foxes, Nanci Griffith and the Proclaimers.

Luath Press

The Wicker Tree – Robin Hardy – 9781906817619 – $14.95 Trade paperback – Fiction/Movie tie-in – September – 256 pgs.

Young Beth and Steve, a gospel singer and her cowboy boyfriend, both Christian members of the no-sex-before-marriage cult they call the 'silver ring thing', leave the US for Scotland. All of Europe is as foreign to them as if they were in Papua New Guinea. When, after initial abuse, they are welcomed with joy and elation to Tressock, the border fiefdom of the sinister Lachlan Morrison, they assume their hosts simply want to hear more about Jesus. How innocent and wrong they are.

Remember Remember – Hazel McHaffie – 9781906817879 – $18.95 Trade paperback – Fiction – October – 288 pgs.

When Doris is found directing traffic in the middle of the night, her daughter Jessica is forced to put her in a home. Clearing out the family house in preparation for selling it, Jessica comes across secrets her mother kept from her long before her memory began to erode under Alzheimer's Disease. The knowledge Jessica uncovers as the family secrets are revealed and past memories are stirred, is fleshed out by the revelations Doris herself provides as her story unravels backwards. But the biggest secret of all is only brought to light when a medical research program requires blood samples.

Testament of a Witch – Douglas Watt – 9781906817794 – $16.95 Trade paperback – Fiction/Mystery – August – 256 pgs.

Set in the 17th century against the backdrop of political and religious conflict, the second of Watt's John MacKenzie series is as historically rich and gripping. MacKenzie investigates the murder of a woman accused of witchcraft and he must act quickly when the same accusations are made against the woman's daughter. Superstition clashes with reason as Scotland moves towards the Enlightenment. The 1600s are expertly recreated with a strong sense of history and place. Also available: Death of a Chief.

Yesterday’s Sins – James Green – 9781906817398 – $16.95 Trade paperback – Fiction/Thriller – August – 256 pgs.

The third book in the Jimmy Costello crime thriller series, the first of which, Bad Catholics, was shortlisted for the Spec Crime Thriller Awards.

Charlie Brodski has a past and it looks like it's catching up with him. As an ex-bomb expert who defected to the Americans, he recognises the bomb attempt as the job of a professional. When Charlie asks for help from the people who provided him with his new life and identity they ask him a favour. It shouldn't be too hard, just to kill a middle-aged widower who's doing a placement prior to going to Rome to train for the Catholic priesthood. Name of Costello, Jimmy Costello. A race against time begins. Can he get Costello before somebody gets him?

Prelude to Everest – Ian Mitchell, George Rodway – 978196817749 – $39.95 Hardcover – History – October – 288 pgs. – 16 pgs. photos

Award-winning mountaineering writer Ian Mitchell and scientist George Rodway tell the tale of Aberdeen-born Alexander Kellas, who achieved the first ascent of several Himalayan peaks over 20,000 feet, but whose life was to end in tragedy as he became the first ‘martyr’ of Everest in 1921. Beginning in Scotland’s Cairngorms and ending in the majestic Himalayas, Kellas’ journey encompasses struggles, explorations, and discoveries which have impacted mountaineering to the present day.

Unbridled Books

An Accidental Mother – Katherine Kindred - 978-1-60953-058-7 – $24.95 Hardcover – Biography – October – 224 pages

After her divorce, Kate Kindred decided that she would live her life without children. But then she fell in love with Jim, a handsome, caring man who had custody of his two-year-old son, Michael. And she fell in love with the boy, too. During the six years they all lived together, Kate learned the deep joys of motherhood—that was the gift that Michael gave her. But when her relationship with Jim ended, he denied her any contact with Michael.

And her heart was broken. An Accidental Mother beautifully describes the joys of mothering a young boy through complicated times.

The Mistress Contract - She and He – 978-1-60953-064-8 – $24.95 Hardcover – Biography – October – 160 pages

The remarkable true document that is The Mistress Contract opens with a piece of paper that was signed in 1981 by a woman and her wealthy lover. The contract establishes an exchange that she thinks fair: If he will provide an adequate and separate home for her and cover her expenses, she will provide him with “mistress services”: “All sexual acts as requested, with suspension of historical, emotional, psychological disclaimers.” Then — on a small recorder that fit in her purse — this extraordinary and unconventional couple began to tape their conversations about their relationship, conversations that took place while travelling, over dinner at home and in restaurants, on the phone, even in bed. This book is based on those tapes. Looking back now, thirty years later, this extraordinary couple — who are still together — are willing to reveal their most private moments to our scrutiny.

More picks from the Dewey Divas and Dudes.