CHOOSE YOUR WORDS WISELY
A readable feast awaits, writes Pat St. Germain. And Canadian books make great gifts.
AT THE MOVIES CLOSE-UPS ON CANADA'S CINEMATIC HISTORY
A Stunning Backdrop:
Alberta in the Movies, 1917-1960
Mary Graham
University of Calgary Press
Hollywood's biggest stars have spent a lot of quality time chewing the scenery around Banff and Jasper. Marilyn Monroe, John Barrymore, Lassie and, of course, Hoot Gibson are among the actors who appear in photographs, posed in natural locations along the Bow River, near Lake Louise and on Stoney Nakoda First Nation land west of Calgary. While she covers all the bases, journalist-historian Mary Graham's primary focus is on the impact of the Stoney Nakoda people, who worked as guides, location scouts and actors, occasionally in ways that allowed them to preserve and celebrate their culture.
Hollywood in the Klondike: Dawson City’s Great Film Find Michael Gates
Harbour Publishing
In 1978, a backhoe operator dug up a surprising relic of the Klondike gold rush, hidden in permafrost under a demolished skating rink. A metal container and hundreds of silent-film reels. Author-historian Michael Gates happened to be on the scene. A Klondike museum curator at the time, he knew Dawson City had been a theatrical hotbed during the gold rush. Learning that luminaries including Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Alexander Pantages and Sid Grauman spent time in the Yukon before going to Hollywood prompted him to explore the North's influence on early filmmaking.
SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT FUN AND GAMES AND IMPORTANT LIFE LESSONS
Hockey Moms:
The Heart of the Game Theresa Bailey and Terry Marcotte Harpercollins
Kelly Mcdavid, Ema Matthews and a few dozen more hockey moms talk about backyard skating rinks, the high cost of gear and priceless bonding time during car trips to the rink. Veteran team mom Theresa Bailey, the founder of online community canadianhockeymoms.ca, hooked up with Ottawa journalist Terry Marcotte to share their stories.
All Roads Home:
A Life On and Off the Ice
Bryan Trottier with Stephen Brunt Mcclelland & Stewart
Seven-time Stanley Cup winner Bryan Trottier recalls life lessons from family, friends, teammates and coaches, with shout-outs to some very special people: His Cree/chippewa/ Métis father Buzz, Pittsburgh Penguins star Mario Lemieux, New York Islanders coach Al Arbour and late player Mike Bossy, lifelong friend Tiger Williams and an influential high school English teacher — award — winning poet Lorna Crozier.
Playing the Long Game: A Memoir Christine Sinclair with Stephen Brunt Random House
Olympic gold-medallist, all-time top international goal scorer and captain of Canada's national team, soccer great Christine Sinclair shares her story for the first time, recalling the highs, the devastating lows and the turning points that shaped her life and two-decade long career. A leader on and off the field, she's the GOAT.
NOVEL IDEAS GREAT ESCAPES
A World of Curiosities Louise Penny
Minotaur Books
In the 18th full-length novel in the Chief Insp. Gamache series, Armand Gamache and Jean-guy Beauvoir deal with two historic cases. The grown-up children of a woman who was murdered years earlier arrive in the village, for unknown reasons, and a 160-year-old letter leads to a bricked-up attic whose dark secrets threaten modern-day villagers. Louise Penny's earlier works have been adapted to an Amazon Prime Video series, Three Pines, starring Alfred Molina as Gamache.
The Opportunist Elyse Friedman Harpercollins
Busy single mom Alana Shropshire doesn't care about her elderly father's upcoming marriage to a 28-year-old woman. But when her two brothers draw her into a scheme to protect their inheritance, she finds herself playing a key role in a dangerous game.
Haven
Emma Donoghue Harperavenue
Inspired by real events, prolific Irish-canadian author Emma Donoghue (Room, The Wonder) sets her sights on a steep rocky outcropping in the Atlantic Ocean, where monks once established a unique monastery. The story of hardship follows a priest and two young men, guided only by faith, to a stark new home. Got a young reader on your list? Consider Donoghue's holiday novel for kids ages eight to 12. The Lotterys More or Less, illustrated by Caroline Hadilaksono, finds the big, chaotic family dealing with delayed flights and an ice storm that hits Toronto a few days before Christmas.
Cold Snap: A Paradise Café Mystery Maureen Jennings
Cormorant Books
International intrigue and a local domestic drama surrounding a Christmas concert keep 1930s Toronto private investigator Charlotte Frayne on her toes in the third Frayne mystery. She's a successor to author Maureen Jennings's most famous sleuth, Det. William Murdoch, featured in CBC-TV'S long-running Murdoch Mysteries.
BIO-SPHERE WONDERFUL LIVES
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story
Simu Liu
Harpercollins
From his early childhood with his grandparents in China and a less-than-idyllic reunion with his parents in Canada, Simu Liu shares candid stories about family relationships, his school years and first job as an accountant, along with details of his really big break — being cast as Marvel movie superhero Shang-chi.
Running Down a Dream Candy Palmater Harpercollins Canada
Comedian Candy Palmater was on top of the world in the fall of 2021. She had her own TV series (APTN'S The Candy Show), a seat at the table on daytime CTV talk show The Social and she had just finished writing her autobiography — the story of a “queer Mi'kmaw lawyer-turned-comic raised by bikers in rural New Brunswick.” Fans were shocked when she died suddenly at the age of 53 in December 2021, but as a consolation, she finally has the last word.
An Embarrassment of Critch’s: Immature Stories From My Grown-up Life
Mark Critch
Penguin Canada
Comedian Mark Critch (This Hour Has 22 Minutes) regaled readers with stories of his Newfoundland childhood in his first book Son of a Critch, which was adapted for the terrific CBCTV series of the same name. This book covers some familiar ground, along with anecdotes from his early career and his later encounters with the rich, famous and infamous.
DEEP THOUGHTS
FLASHES OF BRILLIANCE
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture
Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté Knopf Canada
In a society that can produce a near-miraculous vaccine to combat a new virus, why don't we put the same effort into dealing with chronic maladies? Gabor Maté, with his son Daniel Maté, looks at hypertension, stress, trauma, addiction and other common afflictions, and asks why we take them for granted. He advocates for an approach that treats the whole patient — addressing connections to past traumas, cultural and social stressors, emotional balance and mental health.
Burning Questions: Essays & Occasional Pieces 2004-2021 Margaret Atwood
Mcclelland & Stewart
Margaret Atwood was addressing climate change, a pandemic and extinction with the first book in her Maddaddam trilogy, Oryx and Crake, in the early years of this collection. Almost 20 years later, the book is anchored in the same concerns in 2021. In between, she deals with terrorism, the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and attempts to steal the manuscript for The Testaments. Witty and wise, her non-fiction works are a true gift.