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Media Hits: THE NOTEBOOK, OLD ROMANTICS, CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

THE NOTEBOOK

The Notebook by Roland Allen (Sep 3, 2024) was included in the New Yorker‘s list of “The Best Books of 2024!” The list was published online on December 4, and is available to read here.

The Notebook was also included in the Globe and Mail‘s “Holiday Books Gift Guide for 2024!” The listed was posted online on December 6, and you can check it out here.

Nathalie Atkinson writes,

“[Allen] charts the evolution of notebooks as a repository for thought and follows the crucial role logbooks, diaries and journals have played in humanity’s development.”

Ryan Holiday featured The Notebook in his list of “The (Very) Best Books I Read In 2024.” The list was posted on December 8, and you can read it here.

Holiday calls it,

“[A] lovely book about one of the most transformative pieces of technology ever invented.”

Grab The Notebook here!

OLD ROMANTICS

Old Romantics by Maggie Armstrong (Apr 1, 2025) was featured in the Irish Independent on December 4 for the article, “Novels not to be missed,” available to read here.

Aingeala Flannery wrote,

“A dazzling snapshot of Dublin in the early 21st century, full of wry social observation . . . it will appeal to anyone who likes clever, modern, writing about womanhood.”

Preorder Old Romantics here!

QUESTION AUTHORITY

Mark Kingwell, author of Question Authority (Nov 5, 2024), was interviewed by Deborah Dundas in the Toronto Star. The interview was published online on December 7, and you can read it here.

Get Question Authority here!

SETH’S CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories 2024 (Oct 29, 2024) were reviewed in Cemetery Dance. The review was published online on December 4, and you can read it in full here.

Blu Gilliand writes,

“It’s become a favorite December tradition for me—reviewing the new set of Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories as delivered to my stocking each year by the fine folks at Biblioasis. This year’s package contains tales of dread that will raise goosebumps on your arms faster than the coldest winter wind . . . These stocking-sized one-sit reads really are a great way to spend those quiet moments when you can find them among the holiday craziness.”

Grab all three 2024 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

THE PAGES OF THE SEA

The Pages of the Sea by Anne Hawk (Sep 17, 2024) was listed as a Guardian Best Fiction Book of 2024. The article was published on December 7, and you can read it here.

Justine Jordan writes,

“This fresh perspective on the Windrush generation uses dialect to convey [a] young child’s thoughts with vivid immediacy.”

Grab The Pages of the Sea here!

CROSSES IN THE SKY

Crosses in the Sky by Mark Bourrie (May 21, 2024)was featured in the Toronto Star on December 4, for Heather Mallick’s “Five of my best reads of 2024.” Check it out here!

Mallick writes,

“Canada’s greatest historian has done it for a third time, stripping the carcass of Canadian history and leaving readers horrified, riveted, in shock . . . A triumph.”

Get Crosses in the Sky here!

SORRY ABOUT THE FIRE

Sorry About the Fire by Colleen Coco Collins (Apr 2, 2024) was included in the California Review of Books’ “31 Outstanding Poetry Books from 2024,” which you can view here.

David Starkey writes,

“Readers interested in entering [Collins’s] manically creative world must be prepared to relinquish their preconceptions of how words and sentences ought to be linked together.”

Get Sorry About the Fire here!

Media Hits: A WAY TO BE HAPPY, MAY OUR JOY ENDURE, CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

A WAY TO BE HAPPY

A Way to Be Happy by Caroline Adderson (Sep 10, 2024) was reviewed in The New Indian Express. The review was published online on Sep 21, and is available to read here.

Reviewer Saurabh Sharma writes,

A Way to Be Happy is immensely refreshing, as it not only explores the uniqueness but also showcases the unpredictability of the everyday in a manner only a few writers manage to do.”

A Way to Be Happy was reviewed in McGill University’s The Tribune on September 10. Check out the full review here.

Isobel Bray writes,

“Adderson’s prose is straightforward but doesn’t flatline; every word choice feels intentional. When she goes into detail, it is perfectly placed to highlight her characters’ idiosyncrasies, making the reader empathize with their struggles.”

A Way to Be Happy appeared on the Globe and Mail‘s Fall Book Preview on September 20! Check out the full list of titles here.

Critic Emily Donaldson writes,

“Though her writing is incisive, emotionally astute, slyly funny and award-winning, it still feels like Adderson hasn’t quite gotten her due as one of this country’s best short-story writers.”

Grab A Way to Be Happy here!

MAY OUR JOY ENDURE

May Our Joy Endure by Kev Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler (Sep 3, 2024), was reviewed in The Walrus! The review was published online on September 19, and you can read it in full here.

Reviewer André Forget writes,

“At a time when many fiction writers feel pressure to write socially useful literature, Lambert’s refusal to deal in solutions feels like an invigorating slap in the face.”

Kev Lambert was interviewed by Sonali Karnick on CBC’s All in a Weekend! The interview was posted online on September 22, and you can listen to the full segment here.

May Our Joy Endure was included on the Globe and Mail‘s Fall Book Preview on September 20! See the full list of titles here.

Critic Emily Donaldson writes,

“‘Febrile,’ ‘provocative’ and ‘incendiary’ are among the breathless adjectives used to describe the novels of this young writer from Chicoutimi . . . [May Our Joy Endure] (a Prix Goncourt finalist) is a social satire involving an architect who faces extreme unanticipated blowback for her plans for a major Montreal public works project.”

Get May Our Joy Endure here!

SETH’S CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES

Seth‘s Christmas Ghost Stories (Oct 29, 2024) were featured in Guelph Today! The article included an interview with Seth about the series 10th anniversary alongside mentions of this year’s stories: Podolo, The Amethyst Cross, and Captain Dalgety Returns. The article was published on September 21, and you can read it here.

Seth says of the series,

“If you go back far enough, you realize, oh yes, Christmas is in winter, a dark time for telling ghost stories . . . A story should have a strong sense of place, a real feeling of atmosphere, and needs to be creepy in some way.”

Get all three 2024 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

THE PAGES OF THE SEA

The Pages of the Sea by Anne Hawk (Sep 17, 2024) was included on the Globe and Mail‘s Fall Book Preview on September 20! See the full list of titles here.

Critic Emily Donaldson calls the book,

“[A] finely observed debut.”

Get The Pages of the Sea here!

A CASE OF MATRICIDE

A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Nov 12, 2024) was also included on the Globe and Mail‘s Fall Book Preview on September 20! See the full list of titles here.

Critic Emily Donaldson writes,

“The multiple Booker-nominated Scottish novelist has made a project of undermining the certainties and assumptions we bring to fiction by blurring truth and artifice. In this third book featuring the melancholic, insecure Inspector Gorski, the latter finds himself drawn to the case of a woman in a small French town who’s convinced that her novelist son is plotting her demise.”

Get A Case of Matricide here!

A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE

A Factotum in the Book Trade by Marius Kociejowski was featured in Canadian Writers Abroad on September 17. Check out the full review here.

Reviewer Wayne Grady writes,

“[A] mesmerizing memoir of fifty years as an antiquarian bookseller . . . A Factotum in the Book Trade thus pays homage to an era of bookselling that is fast fading from memory.”

Get A Factotum in the Book Trade here!