Eating Dirt. Catch her in these cities: Saturday, February 4 | Salt Spring Forum | Salt Spring Island Tuesday, February 7 | Bolen Books | Victoria Wednesday, February 8 | Vancouver Island Regional Library | Courtenay Thursday, February 9 | Nanaimo Maps & Charts | Nanaimo Friday, February 10 | Coho Books | Campbell River All events at 7 pm PST And the announcement for the winner of the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction will be announced on Monday, February 13 in Vancouver. Good luck Charlotte! Order a copy of Eating Dirt here.]]> hilarious viral video campaign announcing the nation of Canada’s candidacy in the 2012 U.S. election, on a platform of superior gay rights, health care, crime prevention, redneck politicians, spelling, and lumberjack fashion. The deal was arranged by Jason Yarn at Paradigm. The book will be published in September 2012.]]> Eating Dirt. Click on this link to download the PDF. (You will need Acrobat Reader.)]]> Something Fierce a major contender this year. In her first blog post, Carmen talks about what it was like to make her extremely secret life so public with the publication of her memoir of a revolutionary life bouncing from Vancouver to South America during the 70s and 80s. Have a read and keep following on the CBC Books site and on Twitter (#CanadaReads).]]> The Ice Pilots: Flying with the Mavericks of the Great White North by Michael Vlessides. Following the most unorthodox flyboys on Earth, The Ice Pilots documents local Buffalo Airways' adventures in the arctic skies. Intrepid author Michael Vlessides braves bone-chilling temperatures and treacherous landings to bring readers on an entertaining romp of aviation and excitement. Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at 2 pm Yellowknife Book Cellar 4923 49 Street, NWT Commerce Place Refreshments - Giveaways - Book signing by Mikey McBryan For more information, contact the Yellowknife Book Cellar.]]> Eating Dirt has been shortlisted for the 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. Jurors Stevie Cameron and Susan Renouf made the announcement on behalf of the three-person jury (which also includes Allan M. Brandt) and read the citation they wrote about Charlotte Gill’s book: “Only a writer as skilled as Charlotte Gill could make the back-breaking work of planting more than a million seedlings sound like one of life’s essential adventures. In a carefully balanced story of science, business and friendship, and one that is surprisingly unsentimental, Gill shares her love for Canada’s boreal forests, the tragedy of their disappearances and the grueling work involved in replacing them. Reader, you might finish this book feeling relieved you don’t plant trees -- but you will be wishing you could.” The other four finalists announced by the prize jurors are: Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada; JJ Lee, author of The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit, published by McClelland & Stewart; Madeline Sonik, author of Afflictions & Departures: Essays, published by Anvil Press; and Andrew Westoll, author of The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery, published by HarperCollins Publishers. The prize consists of $25,000 for the winner and $2,000 for each of the runners up. The winning book will be announced on Monday, March 5th 2012.]]> New Society Publishers, based on Gabriola Island, in British Columbia. Rights sales for the imprint will now be handled by rights associate Kim Behnke, operations manager Julie Raddysh, foreign rights director Jesse Finkelstein, and publisher Rob Sanders. New Society Publishers was previously represented by the Marsh Agency. With this notice D&M is pleased to report a number of recent rights sales on behalf of New Society: For Richard Heinberg’s latest book The End of Growth, D&M has sold UK rights to Clairview Books, Korean translation rights to Bookie Publishing Co. via the PubHub Literary Agency, French translation rights to Editions Demi-Lune via the Eliane Benisti Agency, Spanish translation rights to Ediciones de Intervención Cultural, S.L. via International Editors Co., audio rights to Tantor audio, and German translation rights for The End of Growth and Heinberg’s book Peak Everything to Manuscriptum Verlagsbuchhandlung Thomas Hoff KG. In addition, NSP has sold Dutch translation rights to Coming Back to Life, by Molly Young Brown & Joanna Macy, to Uitgeverij Jan van Arkel via the Mo Literary Services Agency; Catalan translation rights to Taking a Stand, by Elizabeth Boardman, to Icaria Editorial; Turkish translation rights to Weapons of Mass Instruction, by John Taylor Gatto, to Edam; Polish translation rights to Not Just a Pretty Face, by Stacy Malkan, to Argani; Korean translation rights to Dry Run, by Jerry Yudelson, to CIR Communications via the Bestun Korea Agency; Romanian translation rights for Urban Agriculture, by David Tracey, and Alcohol Fuel, by Richard Freudenberger, to Editura M.A.S.T.; Japanese translation rights to Divorce Your Car, by Katharine Alvord, to Hakusuisha via the Japan UNI Agency; and French translation rights to Creating Wealth, by Gwendolyn Hallsmith & Bernard Lietaer, to Actes Sud via the Eliane Benisti Agency. For future foreign rights requests please contact Kim Behnke at kimb@dmpibooks.com or 604-254-7191 ext. 206.]]> Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter and Charlotte Gill’s Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe have been longlisted for the 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. The Charles Taylor Prize commemorates Charles Taylor’s pursuit of excellence in the field of literary non-fiction. The prize will be awarded to the author whose book best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception. The shortlist will be announced Tuesday January 10th, 2012 with the winner announced on Monday March 5th, 2012. The prize consists of $25,000 for the winner and $2,000 for each of the runners up.]]> Eating Dirt has been nominated for the 2012 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. The Award is presented by the British Columbia Achievement Foundation, an independent foundation that was established and endowed by the Province of BC in 2003 to celebrate excellence and achievement in the arts, humanities, enterprise, and community service. The 2012 shortlist was announced by Keith Mitchell, chair of the BC Achievement Foundation. “This award is British Columbia's opportunity to highlight the important contribution Canada's best non-fiction makes to our national conversation,” said Mitchell. “We thank the jury for its diligence in selecting this outstanding shortlist from the field of 134 books nominated for this year’s prize.” The shortlist was chosen by jury members Paul Whitney, who retired from his position as City Librarian at Vancouver Public Library in 2010; Patricia Graham, the former editor-in-chief of The Vancouver Sun and current Vice President, Digital, for Pacific Newspaper Group; and award-winning author and editor Shari Graydon. The jury will announce the winner of the 2012 prize at a special presentation ceremony in Vancouver in February, 2012. The winning author will receive $40,000 while the remaining finalists will each receive $2,500. Eating Dirt is described in the following citation from the jury: “Charlotte Gill delivers an insider's perspective on the grueling, remote and largely ignored world of that uniquely modern-day ‘tribe’, the tree planter. In the process, she enlivens the boom and bust history of logging and its environmental impact, questioning the ability of conifer plantations to replace complex ecosystems of naturally evolving old growth forests. Gill's astonishingly lucid prose evokes a visceral experience of the frequently wet, often dangerous, yet surprisingly exhilarating hard labour of those working to mitigate the clear-cut collision between human beings and nature. And although by the end of each tightly crafted chapter, you're desperate for your own 2,000-calorie meal, hot shower and insect-free bed, you're compelled to read on. She writes the forest like Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven painted it: bringing it vividly to life in all its mythic grandeur with striking details and evocative analogies, using intelligence, verve and humour to illuminate the dangers that live within, and threaten from without.”]]> Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill has been featured as Book of the Year in the Non-Fiction category on iTunes Rewind, which highlights the best in music, apps, TV shows, books, movies, podcasts and more from the past year. Special mention also goes to Empire of the Beetle by Andrew Nikiforuk, and Decade of Fear by Michelle Shephard both highlighted in the Non-Fiction category, and Patriot Hearts by John Furlong, highlighted in the Biography category. It’s been a great year for Eating Dirt. Shortlisted for the prestigious Hilary Weston Non-Fiction Prize as well as the BC Achievement Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, Gill’s beautifully written book offers up a slice of tree-planting life in all of its soggy, gritty exuberance. She looks at logging’s environmental impact and its boom-and-bust history, while also eloquently evoking the wonder of trees, which grow from a tiny seed into one of the world’s largest organisms, our slowest-growing “renewable” resource. In Empire of the Beetle – which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award earlier this year – Andrew Nikiforuk exposes some startling connections between beetles and humans and tracks the devastating pine-beetle epidemic that is destroying North American forests. Patriot Hearts by former VANOC CEO John Furlong offers a riveting behind-the-scenes account of the transformative 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games—an extraordinary story of visionary leadership, love of country and the ability to dream boldly. Eating Dirt, Empire of the Beetle, and Patriot Hearts are available from the iBookstore on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, or from the iTunes Store at www.itunes.ca. Eating Dirt $11.99 Empire of the Beetle $11.99 Decade of Fear $17.99 Patriot Hearts $16.99 Eating Dirt and Empire of the Beetle are published by Greystone Books. Decade of Fear and Patriot Hearts is published by Douglas & McIntyre. Both are imprints of D&M Publishers.]]> The Power of More, by Marnie McBean, and Roll On, by Rick Hansen's Man in Motion world tour, the book will be published in Fall 2012 in time for the 25th anniversary of the tour's completion.]]> Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives through the Secret World of Stolen Art. Thursday, December 8, 2011 7:00 pm Indigo Books, Manulife Centre]]> Carmen Aguirre’s Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter has been chosen as one of the five titles battling it out for the 2012 CBC Canada Reads crown. For the first time ever, CBC’s annual battle of the books will focus on non-fiction. The panelists will determine Canada’s must-read non-fiction title for 2012 during four hour-long debates, Feb. 6-9, in front of audiences in Toronto. The shows will air live on CBC Radio One and will be live-streamed on CBC Books. They will also air daily on CBC’s documentary channel, with recap specials the following weekend on CBC TV and CBC Radio One. Aguirre’s champion for Something Fierce is Shad, a Juno Award-winning rapper. A hiphop luminary with a master’s degree in liberal studies, Shad is often pegged as “the thinking man’s rapper,” thanks to his witty wordplay, thoughtful lyrics and smooth delivery. Shad was born in Kenya to Rwandan parents. He was raised in London, Ontario, and now calls Vancouver home. Something Fierce is a gripping, darkly comic memoir of a young underground revolutionary during the Pinochet dictatorship in 1980s Chile. Writing with passion and deep personal insight, Aguirre captures her constant struggle to reconcile her commitment to the movement with the desires of her youth and her budding sexuality. Something Fierce is a gripping story of love, war and resistance and a rare first-hand account of revolutionary life. CARMEN AGUIRRE is a Vancouver-based writer and theatre artist who has worked extensively in North and South America. She has written or co-written eighteen plays, including The Refugee Hotel, which was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play in 2010. Aguirre’s Blue Box, a one-woman show based on the same life experiences as in Something Fierce, will premiere in 2012. Check out www.cbc.ca/books for daily updates about Canada Reads.]]> Richard Wagamese has been chosen as a recipient of the 2012 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards (NAAA) as a representative of media and communications. The National Aboriginal Achievement Awards were established to encourage and celebrate excellence in the Aboriginal community. NAAF created the Awards in 1993, in conjunction with the United Nation’s International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. The Awards recognize the outstanding career achievements of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, in diverse occupations. Now entering their eighteenth year, these Awards have become a Canadian institution. Each year 14 recipients are recognized for their outstanding accomplishments in various disciplines ranging from health, law, political science, culture, arts, and others, two of which are specific recognition to one outstanding youth achiever and one lifetime achievement recipient. The awards are recognized both nationally and internationally as one of the highest honours the community can bestow upon its own achievers. The NAAA describes Richard Wagamese as having shared his incredible gift of writing with many audiences throughout the years. These works tell a story of his victory over numerous struggles including childhood abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and the intergenerational impacts of residential schools. He has spent the last 30 years working in media and communications as a newspaper reporter, columnist, radio producer, broadcaster, documentary producer, and award-winning author. He has drawn national attention for the rich, motivating story of his life For Joshua: An Obijway Father Teaches His Son and for his novel Keeper 'n’ Me which is taught extensively in Canadian Universities. He was the first Aboriginal Canadian to be awarded a National Newspaper Award for column writing with many accolades in the same category to follow. In addition to his writing, Mr. Wagamese is also an inspirational speaker and lecturer and, through his work, has raised awareness of the strength, spirit and power of Indigenous Peoples. The other recipients of the 2012 award include Adam Beach (Arts), Chief Victor Buffalo – (Business & Commerce), Elder Dave Courchene Jr. (Culture, Heritage & Spirituality), Dr. Leona Makokis (Education), Richard Hardy (Environment & Natural Resources), Dr. Janet Smylie (Health), Violet Ford (Law & Justice), Senator Gerry St. Germain (Lifetime), The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq (Politics), Grand Chief Edward John (Politics), Minnie Grey (Public Service), Earl Cook (Youth), Richard Peter [Bear] (Sports), and Candace Sutherland (Youth).]]> Harry Thurston discusses the most up-to-date scientific research on the area and provides a comprehensive portrait of the marine and freshwater habitats, as well as the distinct flora and fauna that call this coast home, in his new book The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History. The presentation will also include a slideshow of stunning photographs from the book. Monday, November 21st, 2011 From 7:30 – 9:00 pm Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History 1747 Summer Street Halifax, Nova Scotia For more information, visit Halifax Kiosk. The event is free to attend and everyone is welcome. The author will be available to sign books after his presentation.]]> Lakeland was chosen as a DSF Book Club pick and the Foundation created this handy readers guide with some great discussion questions. Keep these in mind as you dive into Lakeland. Discussion Questions 1. Did you know that Canada is home to 60% of the world’s lakes? Some limnologists at the University of Guelph have estimated the number of Canadian lakes at three million (L 6). What role did lakes play in your childhood? 2. “The lake simply reflects the environment it drains”. (L 65). Nothing could be truer for Lake Winnipeg which formed a key part of Casey’s explorations; a lake that produced hundreds of millions of dollars annually in hydroelectricity, fish and tourism yet remained unstudied for nearly 30 years. Did you know that lakes can become very productive right before a crash? 3. Do you know where your drinking water comes from? 4. “Our greatest need…is to want less.” Do you think our own acquisitiveness – our love of buying and building – is threatening our very existence? We live in an age of affluence, symbolized by ‘mcmansions’. How should we define our own personal limits? When do we know how much is too much? 5. Dr. David Suzuki identifies human transience as one of the major threats to the environment. In moving, we lose familiarity with the innate patterns and rhythms of our home environment and we lose our connection with nature. Have you moved a lot in your life? Reflect on your attachments to place. (L 34) 6. “Grey Owl understood nature and our bitter sweet relationship with it, that mix of yearning and fear.” Are we fearful of nature? Or, do we view wilderness as a place of spiritual solace, where we reconnect to a simpler way of living? What is your experience of nature? (L 53) 7. “Beavers are not just adapted to lake environments, they manufacture them.” Did you know that the beaver, a Canadian symbol, is a rejuvenating force in the life of the boreal forest? It was once on the verge of extinction and Grey Owl is credited for bringing the symbol of the country back from the brink. Have you ever had the opportunity to witness a beaver dam – an engineering marvel of nature? (L54-56) 8. “Newcomers think it’s beautiful here. They don’t know how beautiful it used to be.” As with other lakes, Lake Okanagan faces the consequences of development. The community surrounding it is transforming due to urban sprawl. Can we truly escape development, or should we stand our ground and fight it through activism, raising awareness and involving communities? (L141-151) 9. Casey suggests that change happens “at ground level – from door to door, neighbor to neighbor.” Have you ever been a source of influence or been influenced by someone in your neighborhood? (L175) 10. Our children have lost touch with nature. They are living in artificial environments, “becoming slaves to convention”. How do we get children involved and reintroduce the simple pleasures of nature? Who is responsible for reintroducing children into the wonders of nature? (L232-238) Take Action in your Community Living history Go back to the lake you knew in your childhood and see how it’s changed. Tell someone what it used to be like or write a story for the local paper. Send your story to us and we’ll publish it on the DSF Book Club site. Be a lake steward See if the lake closest to your home is stewarded by a conservation group. Get informed and join the effort to maintain the integrity of this critical ecosystem. Build community Organize a lake excursion with family and friends – bring a picnic and record biodiversity. Make it a summer ritual or visit the lake in each season to see how it changes. Protest Lakefront development is growing at an unprecedented rate. Share your concerns with your municipal council. Ask others in your community to join you in protecting lakefront ecosystems. Be a responsible cottage owner Demonstrate responsible, sustainable living right in your surroundings. If you happen to be a cottage owner, find out what you can do to reduce your impact - your actions might have an important impact on your neighbours as well. Enjoy Lakeland! When we love something, we naturally want to take care of it. Educate yourself about the lakes in your vicinity or beyond by visiting or taking a guided tour. Check out the recent Nature of Things documentary, Save my Lake. Start a book club! If you don’t have one already, Lakeland is a great first read for a new Book Club. The chapters can be used as conversation starters. Start a book club at work or with your friends, and use your favourite chapter to start the discussion.]]> The Little Hummingbird has been nominated for the 2012 Forest of Reading Blue Spruce Award. The Blue Spruce is a provincial primary reading program developed by the Ontario Library Association. The Blue Spruce Award is geared for students in Kindergarten to Grade 2. Students read 10 nominated Canadian picture books and then vote for their favourite book. Based on the student voting across the province, the best picture book is then selected and the author/illustrator is honoured with the Blue Spruce Award. The Little Hummingbird is an inspiring children’s book—a revised edition of the award-winning Flight of the Hummingbird. It is based on a South American indigenous story about a courageous hummingbird who defies fear and expectations in her attempt to save the forest from fire. The illustrated story is supplemented by a natural and cultural history of hummingbirds, as well as an inspiring message from Nobel Peace Prize winner, the late Wangari Maathai. The evocative artwork by internationally renowned Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas complements the optimistic tale that encourages everyone to take responsibility for their home and the planet. Flight of the Hummingbird was winner of the Gold Medal in the Outstanding Book of the Year category (IPPY Awards) and also nominated for a B.C. Booksellers’ Choice Award in 2009.]]> Eric Enno Tamm has been selected as the winner of the Ottawa Book Award in the non-fiction category. Douglas & McIntyre is delighted to announce that Eric Enno Tamm’s The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds: A Tale of Espionage, the Silk Road and the Rise of Modern China has won the 2011 Ottawa Book Award and a $7,500 prize. This literary prize recognizes published books of literary excellence, written by authors residing in Ottawa. The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds offers a riveting and cautionary tale about the breathtaking rise of China. On July 6, 1906, Baron Gustaf Mannerheim boarded the midnight train from St. Petersburg, charged by Czar Nicholas II to secretly collect intelligence on the Qing Dynasty’s sweeping reforms that were radically transforming China. The last czarist agent in the so-called Great Game, Mannerheim chronicled almost every facet of China’s modernization, from education reform and foreign investment to Tibet’s struggle for independence. On July 6, 2006, writer Eric Enno Tamm boards that same train, intent on following in Mannerheim’s footsteps. Initially banned from China, Tamm devises a cover and retraces Mannerheim’s route across the Silk Road, discovering both eerie similarities and seismic differences between the Middle Kingdoms of today and a century ago. Along the way, Tamm offers piercing insights into China’s past that raise troubling questions about its future and overall his quest turns out to be a cautionary tale.]]> Eric Enno Tamm in discussion about his latest book, The Horse That Leaps through Clouds: A Tale of Espionage, the Silk Road and the Rise of Modern China. He’ll show photos from his research in China, during which he retraced the epic journey of a Russian spy who trekked from St. Petersburg to Beijing a century ago along the Silk Road. Books will be for sale and signing. Sunday, October 16 2 to 4pm Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver Space is limited. To reserve a seat, please RSVP kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. Admission by donation. We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council Author Readings program.]]> Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests has been nominated for the 75th Governor General’s Literary Awards in the English-language non-fiction category. The GGs, Canada’s national book awards celebrate the excellence of Canadian writers, illustrators and translators. The English and French awards are in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature (text and illustration) and translation. Territory, identity and winter are recurrent themes in the books chosen by the Canada Council’s juries who selected the GG shortlist after reading, between them, a total of 1,684 eligible books submitted for this year’s awards. The four competing titles, are Mordecai: The Life & Times, by Charles Foran (Knopf Canada); Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times; Volume Two: 1867-1891, by Richard Gwyn (Random House Canada); The Damned: The Canadians at the Battle of Hong Kong and the POW Experience, 1941-45 by Nathan M. Greenfield (Harper Collins); and The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit by J.J. Lee (McClelland & Stewart). Each of the five finalists will receive $1,000 in recognition of their selection as finalists. The winner will receive $25,000 and a specially-bound copy of the winning book. In Empire of the Beetle, Andrew Nikiforuk – one of North America’s foremost environmental writers - exposes some startling connections between beetles and humans. Beginning in the late 1980s, a series of improbable bark beetle outbreaks unsettled iconic forests and communities across western North America. An insect the size of a rice kernel eventually killed more than 30 billion pine and spruce trees from Alaska to New Mexico. Often appearing in masses larger than schools of killer whales, the beetles engineered one of the world's greatest forest die-offs since the deforestation of Europe by peasants between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Drawing on first-hand accounts from entomologists, botanists, foresters, and rural residents, award-winning journalist Andrew Nikiforuk investigates this unprecedented beetle plague, its startling implications, and the lessons it holds. The winners will be announced Tuesday, November 15 at 10 am at the Enwave Theatre at Harbourfront Centre, 231 Queens Quay West, in Toronto.]]> Ross King’s Defiant Spirits wins award of merit in the book category at the 2011 Heritage Toronto Awards. Philip Goodfellow and Margaret Goodfellow’s A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto wins an honourable mention. Douglas & McIntyre is delighted to announce that Ross King’s Defiant Spirits has won the 2011Heritage Toronto Award. Philip Goodfellow and Margaret Goodfellow’s A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto has won an honourable mention. This literary prize recognizes well-written non-fiction books published in 2010 that explore Toronto's archaeological, built, cultural and/or natural heritage and history. Defiant Spirits traces the artistic development of Tom Thomson and the future members of the Group of Seven over a dozen years in history. Although their work is most often associated with the Canadian natural landscape, the author reveals that Toronto served as home, workplace, and subject matter for the artists. A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto features over 60 remarkable contemporary buildings and public spaces completed between 1992 and 2010. The projects are organized into self-guided walking tours, and each is profiled with descriptive text, multiple colour photographs, and some architectural drawings.]]>