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CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE, ORDINARY WONDER TALES, JUST A MOTHER, ON BROWSING, HAIL THE INVISIBLE WATCHMAN: Globe and Mail, and other hit reviews!

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IN THE NEWS

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES

Seth’s 2022 Christmas Ghost Stories (November 1, 2022) have been reviewed in the Globe and Mail! The review, which also includes an interview with series illustrator Seth, was published online on December 20, 2022. Read the full review here.

Reviewer Jessica Duffin Wolfe writes,

“[I]t’s worth asking why Christmas and ghosts go so well together, and what the hearthside season’s haunts are trying to tell us.

They live on in the 2022 edition of Christmas Ghost Stories from Biblioasis, a series of chilling classics illustrated by Seth, the celebrated Canadian cartoonist … perfect for slipping into a stocking, or tucking into a coat pocket to while away a rinkside hour.”

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories have been reviewed in Cemetery Dance! The review was published online on December 20, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Reviewer Blu Gilliand writes,

“If you’re looking to lace your Christmas cheer with a little fear, then Seth, Biblioasis, and these three authors have the perfect gift for you.”

The Christmas Ghost Stories were also reviewed by Anne Logan for I’ve Read This! The review was published online on December 20, 2022. Read the full review here.

Anne Logan writes,

“I loved them, and really enjoyed the whole concept of reading ghost stories for the holidays ( I appreciate a good scare any time of year!) … These beautiful books are perfect stocking-stuffers, and even better is that they are beautifully illustrated by Canadian darling Seth.”

Pick up your set of the 2022 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

Check out the full series here!

ON BROWSING

Jason Guriel’s On Browsing (October 4, 2022) was listed in Zoomer‘s holiday gift guide, “Holiday Gift List: Books for the Bookish.” The list was published on December 20, 2022. Read whole list here.

Nathalie Atkinson writes,

“The pages of this paean by the Toronto-based poet and critic cover books, but also praise video stores and the practice of slowing down in general. It’s an ode to the pleasures and contemplative benefits of aimlessly wandering the aisles, open to serendipity and discovery. The fact that losing hours to browsing thwarts the ever-present online algorithms is a bonus.”

A portion of On Browsing, originally published at the Yale Review, was listed as one of their most-read prose pieces of the year. “Against the Stream” by Jason Guriel was originally published in January 2022. This list was also announced on December 20, 2022.

Read the whole list along with Guriel’s essay here.

Pick up your copy of On Browsing here!

TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE

Try Not to Be Strange by Michael Hingston (September 13, 2022), was listed in 49th Shelf’s list, “Last Minute Picks for All the Types on Your List”! The list was published online on December 19, 2022. Check out the full list here.

Try Not to Be Strange was also reviewed in the BC Review! The review was posted on December 20, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Reviewer Michael Hayward calls it,

“The authoritative history of the Kingdom of Redonda.”

Get your copy of Try Not to Be Strange here!

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart (November 1, 2022) was listed in 49th Shelf’s list, “Last Minute Picks for All the Types on Your List”! The list was published online on December 19, 2022.

Check out the full list here.

Grab your copy of Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

HAIL, THE INVISIBLE WATCHMAN

Hail, the Invisible Watchman by Alexandra Oliver (April 4, 2022) has been selected as one of the ten “Best Books of 2022” in The Walrus. The article was published online on December 16, 2022. Read the full review here.

Carmine Starnino writes:

“Packed with cinematic and tactile writing, Hail, the Invisible Watchman shows us why Oliver is one of the best English-language poets in Canada.”

Get your copy of Hail, the Invisible Watchman here!

JUST A MOTHER

Just a Mother by Roy Jacobsen (March 7, 2023) has been reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement. The article was published online on December 16, 2022.

Adam Sutcliffe writes:

“Just a Mother, first published in Norwegian in 2020 and now once again co-translated with great skill by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw, is the longest and most engrossing of the series so far.”

You can read the full review here.

Preorder Just a Mother from your local bookshop here:

Biblioasis in The Globe 100: Best Books of 2022!

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IN THE NEWS!

THE GLOBE 100: THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022

We’re excited to share that several Biblioasis titles were included in the Globe and Mail‘s “The Globe 100: The Best Books of 2022”! This Time, That Place by Clark Blaise, Querelle of Roberval by Kevin Lambert, The Music Game by Stéfanie Clermont, Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart, and The Affirmations by Luke Hathaway all made the list. The feature was published online on December 2, 2022.

This year’s Globe 100 were selected by Canadian writers, who provided blurbs for their nominations. Check out the full list here.

Alexander MacLeod on This Time, That Place:

“My hero of the Canadian short story. There’s 50 years of work in this book, all his greatest hits, but every piece is still urgent. If the topic is longing, loneliness or the search for love in an untethered world, no one writes with more wisdom or more beautifully.”

Get This Time, That Place here!

Will Aitken on Querelle of Roberval:

“Querelle of Roberval transplants legendary French novelist Jean Genet’s priapic queer sailor from his 1947 novel, Querelle de Brest, to contemporary Lac St-Jean and sets him to work in a sawmill in the middle of a bitter syndical struggle with a rapacious boss. The most brilliant, imaginative, phantasmagorical and incendiary novel of the year.”

Get Querelle of Roberval here!

Alex Pugsley on The Music Game:

“Many have been the millennial offerings I’ve read the past year, and while there is much to recommend […] the book I keep thinking about is Stéfanie Clermont’s The Music Game. An amalgam of short stories, childhood remembrances, dolorous journaling and deeply-felt romances, this multi-prize-winning novel is an ode to friends who seek alternatives to the systems they’ve inherited.”

Get The Music Game here!

Carrie Snyder on Ordinary Wonder Tales:

“Non-fiction that hums with truth and life. Emily Urquhart writes about family, pain, fear and genetics all through the lens of folk tales and folk history. It proves a deeply moving meditation on the stories we tell ourselves, collectively and individually, to make sense of the insensible magical wonderful awful parts of our ordinary lives.”

Get Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

Jason Guriel on The Affirmations:

“These are masterful, musical poems about faith and transformation, by one of our best contemporary poets.”

Get the Affirmations here!

QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL, THE BARRØY CHRONICLES, A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE, CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH, SHIMMER: Reviews and Features!

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IN THE NEWS

QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL

Querelle of Roberval (August 2, 2022) by Kevin Lambert, trans. by Donald Winkler has been reviewed in the Toronto Star! The review was posted online on July 28, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Bret Josef Grubisic writes,

“Febrile, postmodern to the bone and unexpectedly affecting, the novel is a startling, mile-a-minute performance.”

Get your copy of Querelle of Roberval here!

THE BARRØY CHRONICLES

A piece was published in the Globe and Mail about Roy Jacobsen and the books in The Barrøy Chronicles (The Unseen, White Shadow, and Eyes of the Rigel). The piece was published online on July 23, 2022, and was included in the print edition of the weekend paper. You can read the full piece here.
Jacobsen spoke on the importance of history:
“Without history, without memory, people probably will make the wrong choices in the future, that is the philosophical background of the whole series … But the most important part is that, of course, my obligation to where I come from, my parents, and to think about how important memory or history is for present-day life. I have a saying: Every historical novel is a contemporary novel in disguise.”
Translator Don Bartlett said this, on the writing in the next book in the series, Only A Mother:
“In one sentence you can have a question, an answer, a statement, the authorial voice and more, all separated by commas and extending over a paragraph. I haven’t translated any other author who writes like this.”
Start the series with The Unseen here!
Get your copy of White Shadow here!
Get your copy of Eyes of the Rigel here!

A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE

A Factotum in the Book Trade by Marius Kociejowski (April 26, 2022) has been featured by Zoomer Magazine as one of their “8 New Titles for Book Lovers.” The list was published online on July 20, 2022.

Read the full list here.

Get your copy of A Factotum in the Book Trade here!

CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH

Pauline Holdstock‘s forthcoming novel, Confessions With Keith (September 6, 2022) was included in the 49th Shelf Fall Fiction Preview! The list was published online on July 11, 2022.

You can see the full list here.

Preorder your copy of Confessions with Keith here!

SHIMMER

Alex Pugsley, author of Shimmer (May 17, 2022), put together a reading list for 49th Shelf highlighting books that helped shape him as a reader and writer, and that hold significance in his life. The list was published online on July 21, 2022.

You can see the full list here.

Pick up your copy of Shimmer here!