Pitchfork breaks Broken Social Scene book

This Book Is Broken, by Stuart Berman, et. al.
ISBN to come | price to come | available fall 2008
House of Anansi Press (HarperCollins)

From the very-advance publicity department: online music magazine Pitchfork has broken the news that Anansi will be publishing the official Broken Social Scene book next year:

Coming in 2008: Broken Social Scene, the Book
All BSS, no BS

Come fall 2008, Anne Geddes and her frumpy flower children will have to find a new home. That’s because coffee tables across the land must be cleared for the arrival of This Book Is Broken, an oral history of Broken Social Scene penned by members of the band, with help from Toronto Eye Weekly editor/Pitchfork contributor Stuart Berman. A little like this, one suspects, only Joycean in scope.

Kevin Drew (he of the recent Spirit If…), Brendan Canning, and Jason Collett are among the Scenesters sharing their inside perspective, while bandmate Justin Peroff will help make this document as colorful as the band it dissects by compiling, according to Berman, “lots of photos, gig posters, flyers, scrapbook ephemera, etc.” Publishing duties fall on Toronto’s House of Anansi Press.

(Since Stuart was too modest to tip us off himself about the book at first, thanks to reader Le Skiv for the heads up.)

Mr. Gum shortlisted for Guardian Prize

Mr. Gum and the Biscuit Billionaire, by Andy Stanton
9781405228152 | $9.95 pb | in stock
Egmont Books / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

The second book in the Mr. Gum series has been shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize; winner announced October 4th.

PW starred review for A Land So Strange

A Land So Strange, by Andre Resendez
9780465068401 | $32.50 hc | available November
Basic Books / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Starred Publishers Weekly Review (Sept. 10, 2007):

“In 1528, 300 conquistadores embarked on the ambitious mission of colonizing Florida. They all disappeared. Eight years later, a band of Spanish slave-traders were rounding up their fleeing human cargo in northwest Mexico when they espied a group of men who appeared to be natives approaching them. One was white. Just as astonishingly, a companion of his was African. Who were these strange figures? They, and two others, were the last survivors of the lost expedition. Their march across Florida, their voyage on spindly rafts across the Gulf of Mexico, their captivity in Texas and their trek across the southwest to the Pacific coast form the backbone of Reséndez’s riveting account of the epic journey. The author, a history professor at the University of California–Davis, tells the tale from the Spanish, African and Indian points of view: Native Americans were just as amazed by the original visitors as the visitors were by them, and Reséndez focuses on how the interlopers remade themselves as medicine men and made sense of social worlds other Europeans could not even begin to fathom. Told from an intriguing and original perspective, Reséndez’s narrative is a marvelous addition to the corpus of survival and adventure literature.”

CanCon spotted in I Heart TV

I Heart TV, by TV Guide
9781570615269 | $23.50 pb | in stock
Sasquatch Books / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Just got our finished copies of I Heart TV — and we have CanCon that we didn’t know about! There is a whole section on the Degrassi franchise.

Moon named Booklist’s Best Travel Series of the Year

Moon Travel Guides
Avalon Travel / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

In the September 15 issue, Booklist named Moon the best travel series of the year! Here’s the review:

Travel Roundup: Best Travel Series of the Year, 2007
by Brad Hooper

FEATURE. First published September 15, 2007 (Booklist):

By their very name, Moon guides have always suggested visits to locales off the beaten tourist path, and, indeed, for a long time, Moon guides did focus on the more distant or remote or not-usually-thought-of places that are nevertheless exciting to visit. These days, of course, Moon guides take you not only to Costa Rica and Fiji but also to more standard locations, such as London and Ireland. And Moon guides these days have such an easy feel in the hand: they open well, and the pages are just the right size, with lots of information presented in uncrowded fashion. And the information is full but precise, evaluative but not pompous (“The only downside to the London Eye is the price”). Such good spirit arises from the pages of a Moon guide that the reader can’t help but want to board a plane and make every trip a soulful experience. Along with listings of things to do and places to see and restaurant and hotel recommendations, each volume in the series has a concluding section called “Background,” which performs exactly that task: imparting history, culture, current events, and other basic information the well-informed traveler needs to know.

Ad for John Grogan’s Bad Dogs in G&M Sept. 29

Bad Dogs Have More Fun, by John Grogan
9781593154684 | $23.00 hc | available October
Vanguard Press / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Our advertisement for Bad Dogs Have More Fun that will run in the Globe & Mail on Saturday September 29th (Book Section) is below. We think the ad is very eye catching as well as adorable!

(I’m resisting the temptation to say that it’s also quite fetching…)

 

 

 

The Grey Islands reviewed in Library Journal

The Grey Islands, by John Steffler
978-0-9737586-0-3 | $24.95 audio (2 CDs) | in stock
Rattling Books / House of Anansi Press (HarperCollins)

Review of The Grey Islands in Library Journal (Sept. 25, 2007):

“In these narratives, which mingle poetry and prose, the listener hears the enchanting accents of voices that infuse the language with rhythmic beauty. A ghostly tale of a wife’s death, a mock census read like an obituary, a fisherman teaching his son to fish, and other stories evoke the region’s spirit and the history of its people. The individual voices are framed by the tale of a young man, his marriage nearing shipwreck, who comes as an outsider and describes what he sees in modern Newfoundland. The text is accompanied occasionally by the sounds of coastal birds, the sea washing onto the shore, the sounds of life lived close to the land, sea, and wind. The narrative voices (the author & others) vary with the mood and subject matter, a resonant male voice telling of a young wife’s death long ago, another delivering with religious fervor a history of Newfoundland’s people and the sins for which they have been punished by being delivered to this harsh environment. Vivid descriptive details create an unforgettable sense of life in that place, starkly beautiful and hauntingly remote. Highly recommended.”

-Bernard E. Morris, Modesto, CA

Taschen announces reprint of five popular titles

Back By Popular Demand
TASCHEN announces a reprint of 5 all-time favorites

Available now:

Case Study Houses
Peter Gössel (ED), Elizabeth Smith
Hardcover, 15.7 x 12.2 inch, 440 pages
ISBN 978-3-8228-6412-8
$ 250.00

Neutra. Complete Works
Peter Gössel (ED), Barbara Lamprecht
Hardcover, 15.7 x 12.2 inch, 464 pages
ISBN 978-3-8228-6622-1
$ 250.00

The World of Ornament
David Batterham
Hardcover, 11.4 x 17.3 inch, 528 pages
ISBN 978-3-8228-2194-7
$ 250.00

Available in October:
Albertus Seba’s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities
Dr. Irmgard Müsch, Prof. Dr. Jes Rust, Prof. Dr. Rainer Willmann
Hardcover, 11.4 x 17.3 inch, 636 pages
ISBN 978-3-8228-1600-4
$ 250.00

The Curse of Lono
Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Steadman
Hardcover, 11 x 14.7 inch, 208 pages
ISBN 978-3-8228-4897-5
$ 65.99

all titles ship from Perseus Distribution Services

Starred Booklist review for The Secret History of the War on Cancer

The Secret History of the War on Cancer, by Devra Davis
9780465015665 | $33.50 hc | available October
Basic Books / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

The Secret History of the War on Cancer has received a starred Booklist review (Sept. 15), and there is national media in the works with Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, and CBC TV and Radio.

And Beauty Answers in Globe & Mail

And Beauty Answers, by Elspeth Cameron
978-1897151136 | $36.95 hc | available October
Cormorant Books (UTP Distribution)

The Globe and Mail’s fall review round-up “On the Books” (Sept. 1) included Elspeth Cameron’s biography of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, And Beauty Answers.