New library for New Year
These offerings from B.C. authors inspire, entertain and educate
Each changing calendar is often met with an excitement for selfimprovement. These inspiring, recently released books from B.C. publishers will help to jump-start your resolutions for 2015 while encouraging even additional improvements — read more, buy local, expand your horizons.
If you want to …
Get Off The Grid BECOMING WILD
By Nikki van Schyndel
Caitlin Press
Return to nature with this compelling memoir from a young, urban woman who documents her survival in the Broughton Archipelago — a maze of isolated islands near northern Vancouver Island. Relying on knowledge of B.C.’s flora and fauna, ancient hunting techniques and clothes-making from cedar bark, van Schyndel offers an unusual, compelling perspective on 19 months in the bush: by which time you may be ready to venture out yourself.
Explore Your Home City VANCOUVER CONFIDENTIAL
By John Belshaw (Editor)
Anvil Press
This collaborative effort of artists and writers shares local stories that don’t fit into mainstream narratives. By focusing on tales of common people rather than community leaders and headliners, Vancouver Confidential shines a light on the lives of Vancouverites that have for so long been ignored, providing you with an alternative view of the familiar place we call home.
Learn to Cook THE DIRTY APRON COOKBOOK
By David Robertson
Figure 1 Publishing
What better way to improve your culinary prowess than with recipes from Vancouver’s acclaimed Dirty Apron Cooking school? Amid mouth-watering, abstract photography of favourite ingredients, recipes include prosciutto and taleggio brioches, porcini mushroom and chestnut soup, macadamia nut-crusted mahi mahi, and mango lime tarts. The book is an amateur cook’s dream: easy to follow recipes that lead to big, impressive flavours.
Get In Touch With Your Emotions WASHITA
By Patrick Lane
Harbour Publishing
One of Canada’s finest poets surprised readers in 2014 with a new, reflective collection that explores many facets of Lane’s 75-year life. Honest and selfaware, Washita will move you to contemplate some of the most inexpressible experiences a human being can undergo: the loss of a parent, the breakdown of a body, the perversion of nature, and the acquiring of wisdom. It’s the ideal book to look both forwards and back with.
Live Sustainably GROW WHAT YOU EAT, EAT WHAT YOU GROW
By Randy Shore
Arsenal Pulp Press
Within the covers of this book from The Vancouver Sun’s Green Man columnist you will find a cookbook, gardening manual, personal journal, and treatise on the art of eating and living sustainably. In his quest for selfsufficiency, health, and a better environment, Randy Shore resurrects a garden-to-mouth, natural approach to cooking. Readers will learn how to maintain a productive vegetable plot and keep a thriving garden in small, urban spaces.
Live Forever SILICON RAPTURE
By Adam Pez
Nonvella
You ( likely) won’t live forever after reading Silicon Rapture, but you will gain insight into how a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs believe it can happen: through the Singularity — a predicted and possibly inevitable future when humanity and AI fuse into an entity of godlike proportions. Investigative journalist Adam Pez explores our weird obsession with immortality and technology, asking how likely this future is, and whether we want it to come to pass.
Travel AROUND THE WORLD ON MINIMUM WAGE
By Andrew Struthers
New Star Books
Written as a Victorian travelogue, this humorous collection of adventure stories explores diverse locations and philosophies. From subterranean bookshops in Glasgow, to scorched hills in Africa, to Tibet during the uprising and numerous other locales, Struthers’ journeys lets you see the world from your armchair (regardless of your wages) and provides a new insight into tensions between Eastern and Western philosophy.
Read More THE WORLD AFLOAT
By M. A. C Farrant
Talonbooks
Winner of the 2014 Victoria Book Prize, this series of 75 “miniature” stories peers into the complexities of the human experience, unearthing, questioning and sometimes laughing at our preoccupations. By its end you will newly appreciate the absurd and exciting in life, while being reminded of just how much joy — and perspective — a page of writing can contain.
Cut Down on Tech Time TECHNOCREEP
By Thomas Keenan
Greystone Books
If you’re interested in extricating yourself from the ceaseless pull of technology then discover the price you really pay for such access. One of the world’s top computer security experts shows how our gadgets and online data can be used against us, from cyber bullying to credit card fraud to encouraging additional sales from you and your children. This savvy page-turner will have you returning to analogue — at least for a little while.
Get Fit WHY I WALK
By Kevin Klinkenberg
New Society Publishers
While “Generation Y” have been shown to walk 37 per cent more than they did a decade ago, our love affair with the automobile continues. Having worked for more than two decades to create sustainable communities, author Klinkenberg shares how walking on a daily basis positively affects our finances, sense of freedom, social life, and health. Put down the diet book and read a wellresearched argument to put walking in your life.
Control Your Finances THE FINANCIALLY EMPOWERED WOMAN
By Tracy Theemes
LifeTree Media
Certified financial planner and former counsellor Tracy Theemes believes education is an essential tool to successfully manage one’s money. Whether you want to improve your investment portfolio, save for a comfortable retirement or gain a better understanding of money management, this title is a thought-provoking resource to help with both the emotional and practical implications of financial management.