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Media Hits: HOW TO BUILD A BOAT, ALL THE YEARS COMBINE, SLEEP IS NOW A FOREIGN COUNTRY, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

HOW TO BUILD A BOAT

How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney (Nov 7, 2023) has been reviewed by Sophie Ward in the New York Times! The review was published online on November 1, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Ward writes:

“Atmospheric … Feeney’s prose is both careful and relaxed—detailed in its description of place and character and of the effortful human urge to find order in the natural world; casual in its approach to storytelling.”

How to Build a Boat has also been reviewed in the Hindustan Times. The review was published online on October 31, 2023. You can read the full review here.

The Hindustan Times writes:

How to Build a Boat conjures images of rural Ireland and the Irish sea. It explores how motherhood shapes people in many ways … Fractured lives … come together beautifully in this novel that explores humanity, love, and grief.”

Get How to Build a Boat here!

SLEEP IS NOW A FOREIGN COUNTRY

Sleep is Now a Foreign Country by Mike Barnes (Nov 14, 2023) was reviewed in Quill & Quire. The review was published online on November 2, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Micheline Maylor writes:

“At times memoir, at times dissociative fable, at times personal essay … the writing maintains breath-close nearness to the perceptions of the narrator … This close-up experience of Barnes’s psychosis is akin to being in a diving bell with the storyteller, extremely intimate and viscerally suffocating … culminat(ing) in a feeling of waking from a vivid dream not quite remembered.”

Get Sleep is Now a Foreign Country here!

ALL THE YEARS COMBINE

All the Years Combine: The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows by Ray Robertson (Nov 7, 2023), was reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press. The review was published online on October 30, 2023. You can read the full article here.

Douglas Johnston writes:

“It’s hard to convey the magic of the Dead’s music in words … Robertson … succeeds.”

Ray Robertson was interviewed on Border City Rock Talk. The interview was posted online on October 31, 2023. Listen to the full interview here.

All the Years Combine was also reviewed in Louder Than War. The review was  published online on November 1, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Craig Campbell writes:

“This collection celebrating fifty concerts by the Grateful Dead shows them to be tougher and more complex than you might think … meticulous readings of the bands concerts (alongside track listings) are impressively extensive but crucially they also build a surprising picture too.”

Get All the Years Combine here!

SETH’S CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES: THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR

The Captain of the Polestar by Arthur Conan Doyle, illust. by Seth (Oct 31, 2023) was featured on the Christmas Past Podcast! Host Brian Earl did a reading of the story, from our 2023 Christmas Ghost Stories series, in an episode posted on October 31, 2023. You can listen to the episode here.

Get The Captain of the Polestar here!

Get all three 2023 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

ON WRITING AND FAILURE

On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche (Feb 14, 2023) was reviewed in The New Statesman. The review was published online on November 2, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Barney Horner writes:

“Marche’s purpose is not to discourage young tyros from taking up the pen but to inform them—via repeated commands of “no whining”—that writing is not the path to success, riches or even, often, respect; writers write in spite of failure.”

Get On Writing and Failure here!

Check out the rest of the Field Notes series here!

ALL THINGS MOVE

Jeannie Marshall, author of All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel (Apr 4, 2023), was interviewed on Art Curious Podcast. The episode was published online on October 30, 2023. You can listen to the episode here.

Get All Things Move here!

THINGS ARE AGAINST US, A GHOST IN THE THROAT, CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, ROMANTIC, VILLA NEGATIVA: Media Hits!

IN THE NEWS!

THINGS ARE AGAINST US

Lucy Ellmann’s Things Are Against Us has been named a ‘Best Book of the 2021’ by The Independent! The list was published online on December 13. You can see the whole list here.

Martin Chilton says,

“Stimulating, entertaining and spiky. Some of her targets are dreary sexist men but she skewers them with real humour. Ellmann is fond of puns, alliteration and long lists of sharp adjectives, and her put-downs are like a literary version of watching popcorn kernels sizzle and suddenly pop in the pan.”

Get your copy of Things Are Against Us here!

 

A GHOST IN THE THROAT

A Ghost in the Throat cover

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa was included in the New York Times Critics’ Top Books of 2021! The list was posted on December 15. You can read the whole list here.

Get your copy of A Ghost in the Throat here!

 

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories (October 26, 2021) were featured along with an interview with Seth in Zoomer! The feature was published on December 10. You can read the full article here.

Reviewer Nathalie Atkinson said,

“The Biblioasis editions are handsome objects with embossed covers, double-page spreads that act like a cinematic establishing shot, and the artist’s thematic spot illustrations … The Seth editions are harbingers of a Christmas ghost story revival.”

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories were also mentioned in the Washington Post‘s books newsletter! The newsletter went out on December 10.

Ron Charles said,

“Each of these tiny books—20 volumes now—is cleverly illustrated by the cartoonist known as Seth. Even smaller than a Christmas card, they make fun literary stocking stuffers.”

Seth was interviewed for the Proust Questionnaire on CBC The Next Chapter! The interview was posted on December 11, and re-aired on December 13. You can listen to the segment here.

Get all three 2021 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

 

ROMANTIC

Romantic by Mark Callanan was listed in CBC Books’ Best Canadian Poetry of 2021! The list was posted on December 14. Check out the whole list here.

Get your copy of Romantic here!

 

VILLA NEGATIVA

Villa Negativa was reviewed in The Malahat Review! The review was published in their Autumn 2021 print edition.

Reviewer Jay Ruzesky said,

Villa Negativa is a collection of three intensely personal reflections rendered in precise language and spanning an emotional range so wide that readers should do some mental stretching before reading the books. While examining anorexia, a failed or failing relationship, and a sister’s long, agonizing illness, McCartney manages to expose humour, so that the reader is compelled forward even as we are anxious about how things are going to come out in the end.”

Get your copy of Villa Negativa here!

THE SINGING FOREST, DRIVEN, ON PROPERTY, ON DECLINE, CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, A GHOST IN THE THROAT: Best of the Year and Gift Picks!

IN THE NEWS!

THE SINGING FOREST

The Singing Forest by Judith McCormack (September 21, 2021) has been named a ‘Best Historical Fiction Novel of 2021’ by the New York Times Book Review! The list was published online on December 9. You can check out the full list here.

Alida Becker said in her review:

“Blends thought-provoking reflections on the moral reckoning of war crimes with a warm, wry, almost Anne Tyler-esque depiction of a young woman’s attempts to decode her eccentric professional and personal families … Leah’s losses, her questions about her parents, are subtly contrasted with larger questions about truth and responsibility, especially when she flies off to conduct interviews in Minsk, “where facts had been malleable for so long, where they had become saleable commodities.”

Get your copy of The Singing Forest here!

DRIVEN

Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers by Marcello Di Cintio (May 4, 2021) was included on the CBC Books “Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2021′ list! The list was published online on December 9. You can see the full list here.

Get your copy of Driven here!

ON PROPERTY

On Property by Rinaldo Walcott (February 2, 2021) was also included on the CBC Books “Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2021′ list! The list was published online on December 9. You can see the full list here.

Get your copy of On Property here!

Check out our Field Notes bundle here!

ON DECLINE

On Decline cover

Andrew Potter, author of On Decline (August 17, 2021) was interviewed by Sean Speer in The Hub! The interview was posted today, on December 10. You can read the full interview here.

Get your copy of On Decline here!

Check out our Field Notes bundle here!

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES 2021

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories (October 26, 2021) received a glowing review in The Charlatan! The review was posted online on December 7. You can read it here.

Reviewer Isabel Harder said,

“Seth’s books—petite and illustrated with gorgeous minimalist designs—feel somehow like a more mature version of my childhood traditions. In reality, Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories are a tradition everyone, young and old, can make a part of their holidays. With these beautifully illustrated books, it seems in this case one really can judge a book by its cover.”

Christmas Ghost Stories were mentioned on CBC The Homestretch as part of book columnist Anne Logan’s Christmas picks! The segment aired on November 30. You can listen to it here.

Christmas Ghost Stories were also featured in Hermine Annual’s ‘2021 Holiday Gift Guide for Book Lovers’! The gift guide was posted on December 6. You can view it on their website here.

The Doll’s Ghost by F. Marion Crawford from Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories was chosen as an Ampersand Review holiday staff pick by managing editor Robyn Read! The pick was posted on twitter on December 7. You can check it out here.

Get all three 2021 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

Check out the rest of the series here!

A GHOST IN THE THROAT

A Ghost in the Throat cover

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa was included in Entropy magazine’s ‘Best of 2020-2021 Nonfiction Books’! The list was posted on December 9. Check out the full list here.

Get your copy of A Ghost in the Throat here!