If You Didn’t Bring Jerky getting great blurbs from Ted Nugent, and more

If You Didn’t Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat?, by Bill Heavey
9780871139733 | $28.95 hc | available November
Atlantic Monthly Press / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Some of the great blurbs coming in:

“This is a book that will be read and re-read for years and probably generations.” Patrick F. McManus, author of The Bear in the Attack

“His new book delivers wonderful, clever, balls-to-the-wall hysteria
celebrating all things fun and frustrating beyond the pavement. When I die, I want Heavey to gut me, stuff me, and deliver my eulogy for one good
last laugh. Unfortunately, I will outlive him, laughing all the way. Bill is my favorite writer. That oughtta ruin his already teetering career once and for all.” Ted Nugent

“While he may not be in the accelerated class, skills-wise, Heavey has the
heart of a true hunter. I urge you to buy this book.” David E. Petzal, Field & Stream columnist and author of The Complete Book of Hunting

Antarctica photographer wins Professional Photographer of the Year

Antarctica, by Sebastian Copeland
9781933784199 | $68.95 hc | available October
Earth Aware Editions / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Sebastian Copeland has won Professional Photographer of the Year in the book category at the 2007 International Photography Awards (the Oscars of photography). Plus, there will be a feature with photos in the October issue of W Magazine.

Milkweed reviews in Booklist

The Farther Shore, by Matthew Eck
9781571310576 | $27.50 cl | available October
Milkweed Editons / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

The Future of Nature, selected and introduced by Barry Lopez
9781571313065 | $22.50 pb | available September
Milkweed Editons / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Starred Booklist review for The Farther Shore:
“Heir to Hemingway, and damn near as powerful as Cormac McCarthy in The Road (2006), Eck has created a contemporary version of The Red Badge of Courage in this tale of one young man’s trial by fire in the pandemonium of war in an age of high-tech weaponry and low-grade morality.”

 

Review in Booklist for The Future of Nature:
“Each essay has been brought up-to-date, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, adding up to a thought-provoking ecological primer.”

Flying to America in Harper’s, Details

Flying to America, by Donald Barthelme
9781593761721 | $32.50 cl | available November
Shoemaker & Hoard / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

There will be exerpts of three stories in the “Readings” section of the November issue of Harper’s, plus a review in the November issue of Details.

Bloomsbury Review gives Gary Snyder the cover

Back on the Fire, by Gary Snyder
9781593761370 | $29.95 cl | In stock
Shoemaker & Hoard / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Cover story and interview with Snyder in the July/August issue of the
Bloomsbury Review.

Strange as this Weather has Been to be reviewed in O Magazine

Strange as This Weather Has Been, by Ann Pancake
9781593761660 | $19.95 pb | available October
Shoemaker & Hoard / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Ann Pancake’s novel will be reviewed in the November issue of O magazine.

From the review: “… lyric and fierce, full of honesty and urgency.”

bOObs to be featured three times on the Rachael Ray Show

bOObs, by Elisabeth Squires
9781580052078 | $19.95 pb | available October
Seal Press / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Elisabeth Squires (a.k.a., “The Boob Lady”) will appear on The Rachael Ray Show; she is performing three “boob” makeovers that are scheduled to air between September 30th and October 7th.

Plus, watch for forthcoming reviews in Library Journal, Chatelaine, and Health Magazine.

National Geographic Online mini-site featuring Running for My Life author

Running for My Life, by Ray Zahab
9781897178447 | $21.95 pb | available September
Insomniac Press / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

While the documentary Running the Sahara is still in postproduction, the National Geographic website has a great mini-site up dedicated to the movie. It’s some pretty amazing stuff…

G&M reviews Northern Lights A to Z

Northern Lights A to Z, by Mindy Dwyer
9781570615153 | $13.50 pb | In stock
Sasquatch Books / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Review by Susan Perren in the Globe & Mail Books (August 11, 2007):

Aurora borealis, the scientific name for the Northern Lights, is a phenomenon much studied by scientists. The Earth is a magnet, the sun generates wind and the Earth’s atmosphere is full of electricity – these scientific facts are all part of what author Dwyer calls the “aurora puzzle.” But, as she notes, though these facts “may have come close to explaining this breathtaking phenomenon, there is still plenty of mystery” surrounding it.

Dwyer’s abecedarium is an attractive mix of science, myth and folklore, with swirling watercolours as the ideal medium to convey the magic and mystery of the aurora in its various manifestations and meanings.

The “A” word, not surprisingly is “Aurora,” the name, we’re told of the ancient Roman goddess of dawn. “Borealis” is derived from the Latin “boreal,” meaning “northern,” and is the second word in this northern alphabet.

The “G” word is Greenlanders: In early days, these northern people saw the aurora as a ring of fires around the oceans of their island home. Xenophanes, the Greek philosopher, does the honours for “X.” He claimed that “the aurora was ‘a gathering of moving and burning clouds.’ Now we know that Northern Lights are not actually on fire but are powered by winds from the sun.”

That last and possibly most unco-operative letter of the alphabet, “Z,” belongs to “Zones” of the auroral kind, those places on Earth where the aurora borealis occurs most frequently and with the greatest intensity.

Great review for Mutt & Jeff in the Onion

The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff, by Jeffrey Lindenblatt
978-1561635023 | $30.95 hc | in stock
NBM Publishing / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

A review of Mutt & Jeff from The Onion’s A.V. Club:

Those who’ve been getting into classic comic strips via the popular reprint collections of Gasoline Alley, Dick Tracy, and Thimble Theater might feel a little culture shock perusing The Early Years Of Mutt & Jeff, NBM’s sampler of Bud Fisher’s early-20th-century favorite, and the first volume in a new series called “Forever Nuts: Classic Screwball Strips.” Surveying Fisher’s feature from 1909-13—when it became the first wildly successful daily strip—The Early Years includes a few serialized storylines, but unlike the comics that started up just a decade later, Mutt & Jeff was mostly a gag-delivery machine. And a brilliantly constructed one at that. Most strips start with the lanky Mutt stumbling into a new moneymaking scheme that often involves blackening the eye of his diminutive partner Jeff. The scratchy art and rapid-fire comic rhythm takes some getting used to, but once readers get on Fisher’s wavelength, just seeing Mutt gamely assert, “Jeff, we’re in soft, I just got a job as war correspondent,” is enough to generate a smile of anticipation… A