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News and Reviews: Highlighting Biblioasis Titles!

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IN THE NEWS!

THINGS ARE AGAINST US

Things Are Against UsLucy Ellmann’s Things Are Against Us (September 28, 2021) received a rave review in The Observer! The review was published in their print issue on June 27, and online on June 28. You can read it on their website here.

Reviewer Hephzibah Anderson wrote:

“Funny and furious … Aimed at everything from air travel to zips, genre writing to men (above all, men), her ire is matched only by an irrepressible comic impulse, from which bubbles forth kitsch puns, wisecracking whimsy and one-liners both bawdy and venomous … You don’t have to agree with everything Ellmann says to find this supple, provocative volume invigorating. Indeed, part of its craftiness lies in keeping the reader guessing about precisely how seriously she takes herself … A manifesto worth getting behind. On second thoughts, better make it a womanifesto.”

Preorder your copy from Biblioasis here!

 

Dante's Indiana coverDANTE’S INDIANA

Randy Boyagoda’s Dante’s Indiana (September 7, 2021) received a positive review from Kirkus Reviews! The review was published online on June 29, 2021, and it will appear in their July 15, 2021 print issue. You can read it on their website here.

Kirkus wrote,

“Boyagoda keeps things moving quickly and imaginatively. He skewers hosts of sinners along the way, but the wit has a winsome empathy behind it. A rollicking, inventive, mostly successful satire—with a vein of seriousness and sadness underneath.”

Preorder your copy today from Biblioasis here!

 

100 MILES OF BASEBALL

Dale Jacobs & Heidi LM Jacobs were interviewed by Steve Paikin on TVO’s The Agenda about their new book 100 Miles of Baseball: Fifty Games, One Summer! The interview aired on June 15, 2021, and you can watch it on their website here.

On June 16, 2021, CBC Books included 100 Miles of Baseball in their list “24 Canadian books to get your dad for Father’s Day”.  You can check out the list on their website here.

Also, Dale Jacobs & Heidi LM Jacobs were interviewed by the Pandemic Baseball Bookclub. Heidi & Dale were joined in conversation by Andrew Forbes, author of The Only Way is the Steady Way. The interview was posted on June 16, 2021. You can watch it on their YouTube channel here.

Andrew Forbes wrote,

“In 100 Miles of Baseball, authors Heidi L.M. Jacobs and Dale Jacobs create a series of beautiful, heartfelt and carefully considered meditations on baseball’s myriad pleasures and meanings.”

Buy 100 Miles of Baseball from Biblioasis here!

 

DRIVEN

The Coast published an excerpt from Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers highlighting Halifax driver, Michael Kamara’s story on June 16, 2021. The excerpt was published in the print issue and is available on their website here. 

Editor Morgan Mullin wrote,

“When you’re in a cab, looking at the back of the driver’s head, do you think about who they are? Not just their job—to get you from Point A to Point B—but their life and dreams? Probably not, the same way you don’t think about what your cashier had for breakfast. But Marcello Di Cintio does think of these things—enough that he wrote a book about cabbies, built on endless hours of interviews that construct the backstory of drivers from across the country.”

On June 18, 2021, the CBC’s Day 6 included Marcello Di Cintio’s Driven on their summer reading list! Book columnist Becky Toyne discussed Driven on the show, featuring it as one of the four titles she recommends. You can listen to the segment here.

Also on June 18, 2021, the Montreal Gazette included Driven in their list of “Time to revive an old habit: seven books to take out and about this summer”.  You can check out the list on their website here.

Reviewer Ian McGillis wrote,

“In Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers, Marcello Di Cintio takes the time and trouble to engage with a cross-Canada range of people representing a profession too often taken for granted. Most of them are immigrants; all of them are subject to scarcely conceivable challenges and obstacles, often exacerbated by the onset of Uber.”

Marcello Di Cintio’s Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers received a positive review in the Winnipeg Free Press! The review was published on June 26, 2021. You can read the review on their website here. 

Reviewer Gordon Arnold wrote:

“Driven is a collection of short essays laying out the backstory for an eclectic array of immigrant cabbies … All of the characters are driven by an incredible work ethic, where 17-hour days are not uncommon … If you have spent any time at all in cabs, chances are you will have met some of the character types in this easy-reading collection.”

Marcello Di Cintio was also interviewed on the video & audio podcast Sweater Weather. Marcello spoke to writer Aaron Giovannone, and the episode aired on June 26, 2021. You can watch it on the YouTube channel here. 

Marcello Di Cintio was interviewed on another podcast, Canada Reads American Style. He was interviewed by the two hosts, Rebecca Higgerson and Shauna Quick, and the episode aired on June 28, 2021. You can listen to the episode here. 

Order your copy of Driven here!

 

LUCIA

The Globe & Mail included Alex Pheby’s Lucia (June 15, 2021) in the Summer 2021 Books Preview! The list was published online on Friday, June 18, 2021, and was also in their print issue on the weekend. You can read it on their website here.

Reviewer Emily Donaldson praised Lucia:

“An air of mystery has always clung to Lucia Joyce—daughter of writer James, dancer and lover of, among others, Samuel Beckett and Alexander Calder … In an original, bravura turn, British novelist Alex Pheby tells Lucia’s story from the perspective of the various men around her (spoiler alert: none come off well).”

Buy Lucia today from Biblioasis here!

 

A GHOST IN THE THROAT

A Ghost in the Throat coverDoireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat (June 1, 2021) received a rave review from the Chicago Review of Books! The review was published on June 25, 2021. You can read it on their website here. 

Reviewer Shazia Hafiz Ramji wrote:

“A detailed tapestry that threads Eibhlín Dubh’s family histories with the author’s own translations of her poem from the Irish, Ní Ghríofa’s essayistic and intimate style recalls the inter-disciplinary perambulations of W.G. Sebald and the uncompromising feminism of Maggie Nelson … A Ghost in the Throat is a kaleidoscopic book of ‘homemaking’ that centers the intuitive knowledge of the body in order to learn to live—again, again, and again.

Also, A Ghost in the Throat was included by Buzzfeed Books as one of “58 Great Books to Read This Summer, Recommended by Our Favourite Indie Booksellers”! The listed was posted on June 24, 2021. Check it out here. 

James Crossley at Madison Books wrote:

“Many writers have used classic literary works as a lens for examining their own lives, but none have ever given me the visceral thrill that Doireann Ní Ghríofa has. She doesn’t meditate on a mysterious 18th-century Irish lament; she wrestles with it, turning it over and over to reveal myriad intimate connections to modern motherhood and marriage. To read A Ghost in the Throat is to hold in your hands a living, beating heart.”

Finally, A Ghost in the Throat was listed by Page One as a New & Noteworthy title in their July/August 2021 issue.  It will be available in print, and you can check out the list on their website here.

Get your copy of A Ghost in the Throat from Biblioasis here!

 

MURDER ON THE INSIDE: TV, News, and More!

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On the heels of a successful launch on Wednesday April 14, which you can watch here, Catherine Fogarty’s Murder on the Inside: The True Story of the Deadly Riot at Kingston State Penitentiary has received fantastic media attention: from TV and radio interviews, to reviews in newspapers across Canada!

IN THE NEWS!

Murder on the Inside was reviewed by the Winnipeg Free Press and The Kingston-Whig Standard, and an excerpt was featured in the Toronto Star. You can read the Winnipeg Free Press here, the Kingston-Whig here, and the Toronto Star excerpt here.

In the Winnipeg Free Press, writer Barry Craig had this to say:

“The most important observation author Catherine Fogarty makes in this her first book (and a good one) is not about the notorious riot in 1971 in Kingston Penitentiary (KP) that she examines, but her conclusion that Canada’s prisons are still much better at housing and hurting people than helping them … Fogarty’s chronicle of the KP riot is a comprehensive and action-packed explanation of what went right and wrong … Murder on the Inside is a shocking tale of sickening savagery and unrewarded heroics, and Fogarty details with growing confidence the unhealthy, sadistic straight-jacket life inside Kingston’s notorious maximum security prison 50 years ago.”

In the Kingston Whig-Standard, Peter Hendra wrote:

“The book details what happened and why, and the aftermath of the four-day standoff, while offering compelling portraits of the characters on both sides of the negotiating table.”

INTERVIEWS!

Catherine Fogarty was recently interviewed about her book on Global News Kingston by Bill Welychka. Check out the video below!

Catherine Fogarty also discussed her book on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paiken, which you can watch below.

Additionally, Catherine Fogarty spoke to twelve CBC shows across Canada on April 13: “Up North” in Sudbury, ON at 2:30 PM EDT, “Mainstreet” in Halifax, NS at 2:40 PM EDT, “Radioactive” in Edmonton, AB at 2:50 PM EDT, “All Points West” in Victoria, BC at 3:07 PM EDT, “Homestretch” in Calgary, AB at 3:30 PM EDT, “Mainstreet” in Cape Breton/ Sydney, NS at 3:50 PM EDT, “Afternoon Edition” in Saskatchewan at 4:07 PM EDT, “Up to Speed” in Winnipeg, MB at 4:20 PM EDT, “Radio West” in Kelowna, BC at 4:40 PM EDT, “On the Coast” in Vancouver, BC at 4:50 PM EDT, “Air Play” in Whitehorse, YT at 5:30 PM EDT, “Afternoon Drive” in London/Windsor, ON at 5:50 PM EDT.

 

ABOUT MURDER ON THE INSIDE

“You have taken our civil rights—we want our human rights.”

On April 14, 1971, a handful of prisoners attacked the guards at Kingston Penitentiary and seized control, making headlines around the world. For four intense days, the prisoners held the guards hostage while their leaders negotiated with a citizens’ committee of journalists and lawyers, drawing attention to the dehumanizing realities of their incarceration, including overcrowding, harsh punishment and extreme isolation. But when another group of convicts turned their pent-up rage towards some of the weakest prisoners, tensions inside the old stone walls erupted, with tragic consequences. As heavily armed soldiers prepared to regain control of the prison through a full military assault, the inmates were finally forced to surrender.

Murder on the Inside tells the harrowing story of a prison in crisis against the backdrop of a pivotal moment in the history of human rights. Occurring just months before the uprising at Attica Prison, the Kingston riot has remained largely undocumented, and few have known the details—yet the tense drama chronicled here is more relevant today than ever. A gripping account of the standoff and the efforts for justice and reform it inspired, Murder on the Inside is essential reading for our times.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catherine Fogarty is a storyteller. She is the founder and president of Big Coat Media and Story Hunter Podcasts. An accomplished television producer, writer and director, Catherine has produced award-winning lifestyle, reality and documentary series for both Canadian and American networks. Catherine is the executive producer of the Gemini nominated series Love It or List It and directed I Don’t Have Time for This, an intimate documentary about young women with breast cancer. Originally trained as a social worker, Catherine studied deviance and criminology. She worked with numerous at-risk populations including street youth, people with AIDS, abused women, and social services. Catherine holds an M.A. in Social Work, an MBA in Human Resource Management, and an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from the University of Kings College. She was recently awarded the Marina Nemet Award in Creative Writing through the University of Toronto.

 

Order your copy now from Biblioasis, or from your local bookstore!

SEA LOVES ME, 100 MILES OF BASEBALL, FOREGONE: Biblioasis Books in the News!

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Check out some recent coverage of our books below:

IN THE NEWS

 

Hot off the heels of its virtual launch, 100 Miles of Baseball by Dale and Heidi LM Jacobs has had great news coverage recently from the Globe and Mail, and was listed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal‘s feature, “13 New Baseball Books Worth Adding to Your Baseball Lineup”! You can read the Globe and Mail article here, and find the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal list here.

Globe and Mail reviewer Brad Wheeler wrote:

“They soulfully documented a 2017 road trip to the obscurest of ‘play ball’ destinations, all within a limited radius … The married authors complement each other—he’s the play-by-play guy; she, the colour commentator.”

Chris Foran of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal added:

“This book is a journal … of two people seeking and finding what made them love the game in the first place.”

Check out their websites for the full reviews!

Buy 100 Miles of Baseball from Biblioasis, or from your local bookstore.

 

Sea Loves Me by Mia Couto was featured in a beautiful rave review from World Literature Today!

Reviewer Anderson Tepper wrote:

“Sea Loves Me is a thrilling addition to Couto’s extraordinary body of work, bringing together new and old stories that evoke past and present Mozambique, memories and dreamscapes, natural and spirit worlds. War, race, sky and sea, death and desire—these are just a few of the eternal elements Couto uses to mold his wise, enchanting fiction.”

Read the full review on their website here.

Order Sea Loves Me from Biblioasis, or from your local bookstore.

 

Russell Banks’ Foregone was also featured by the Globe and Mail, in an editorial by Russell Banks himself which also explores his reasons for becoming a Canadian citizen. Banks also had an interview and event with Globe and Mail writer Sandra Martin for One Page: Canada’s Virtual Literary Series! The Globe and Mail editorial can be found here, and you can still watch the One Page event and interview here.

Russel Banks explains in his article:

“I want my identity as a Canadian to be a significant part of my legacy. To do that, I first have to claim it. Also, for myself alone, I simply want to honour my father’s and my grandparents’ origins, the way I hope my children and grandchildren will someday honour mine. I want to merge my life’s story in the U.S. with my ancestors’ tales of two-and-a-half centuries of work and love in the Maritime provinces of Canada.”

Check out the links for the full editorial and event!

You can order Foregone from Biblioasis, or from your local bookstore.